May 2, 2021

Location

Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Santa Ana, Bakersfield

Department

Advocacy

Deadline date

Summer Internships– February 21, 2025 Fall Internships – August 2, 2024 Spring Semester and Winter Quarter Internships- December 6, 2024 Spring Quarter Internships - February 14, 2025

ACLU SoCal Advocacy Internships, Externships, & Volunteer Opportunities

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) is currently accepting applications for interns, externs, and volunteers to work in our Los Angeles, Orange County (Santa Ana), Inland Empire (San Bernardino), and Kern County (Bakersfield) offices. We are accepting internship applications from students at all academic levels, including high school students, undergraduates, law students, social work students, and other graduate students. We are also accepting applications for volunteers who are not currently enrolled in an academic program. People of color, women, people with disabilities, people over 55, and people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex are encouraged to apply. Please review the application instructions carefully.

About ACLU SoCal

The ACLU of Southern California comprises two organizations: The ACLU of Southern California and the ACLU Foundation of Southern California (collectively "ACLU SoCal"). Founded in 1923, ACLU SoCal has been at the forefront of numerous major efforts for civil liberties, civil rights, and equal justice in California. ACLU SoCal tackles a vast array of issues, including criminal justice, First Amendment, gender equity, reproductive justice, LGBTQ rights, immigrants' rights, police practices, education equity, jails reform, and economic justice. The ACLU SoCal has offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire, and Kern County.

ACLU of Southern California is committed to developing a culture of diversity, equity, respect, and inclusion and to strive to maintain a workforce that reflects the communities that we serve. The ACLU SoCal is an equal opportunity employer that does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of any status or condition protected by applicable law. We encourage all qualified individuals to apply and value people of all races, genders (including gender identity or expression), sexual orientations, disabilities, citizenships, ages, religions, and national origins and who have different marital statuses, family caregiving responsibilities, lived experiences with the criminal justice systems, and genetic information. ACLU SoCal does not tolerate discrimination or harassment on the basis of any of these characteristics.

The ACLU SoCal is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please e-mail hrsupport@aclusocal.org. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.

Internship/Externship Information

NOTE: Due to COVID19, we have both virtual and hybrid internships until further notice.  We do not have internship opportunities that are fully in-person.  Please check back on this posting for updates and changes to this rule.

Interns will be assigned to a specific project/subject area. Please review the individual project group postings below for a more detailed description of their work and specific intern/volunteer needs.

The ACLU SoCal is currently unable to pay stipends for interns or volunteers outside of Summer Internships. Applicants are encouraged to apply for Public Interest Law Foundation grants or other grants and to investigate work-study options as alternative sources of compensation. The ACLU SoCal can serve as a work study host and will support students' applications for funding with supporting materials and documentation.

Summer Interns

We ask that students commit to no fewer than eight weeks and prefer ten-week commitments or longer (although exceptions may be made in certain circumstances). The office is open five days a week and successful applicants will work eight-hour days (with some occasional longer days depending on the project deadlines). The ACLU SoCal endeavors to make our summer internships as rewarding as possible. Each year, the ACLU SoCal hosts eight to 10 “Brown Bag” presentations that are open to interns from all local non-profits. Past guests include Ninth Circuit and District Court judges, as well as UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky who typically discusses the current and upcoming Supreme Court terms. ACLU attorneys and advocates also host internal trainings for all interns on topics such as applying for clerkships, applying for fellowships, and interviewing clients to draft declarations. Although we have limited resources, our interns are invited to several social events as well.

We strongly encourage interns to seek funding from their schools and apply for other grants or scholarships.  The ACLU of Southern California may have limited funding available for summer interns who request it.  Please check back with this posting for future updates.

Applications for Summer 2025 Internships are open from September 1, 2024 to February 21, 2025.

Fall/Winter/Spring Interns

ACLU SoCal welcomes interns/externs in the fall, winter, and spring semesters. The number hired varies depending upon the needs of staff. Students should be able to commit to a minimum of 10 hours each week during the semester (some of which occasionally may be performed out of the office).

Applications for the Fall, Winter, and Spring semesters are accepted year-round but we close applications on the dates below:

 

  • Fall Internships – August 2, 2024
  • Spring Semester and Winter Quarter Internships – December 6, 2024
  • Spring Quarter Internships - February 14, 2025

 

Volunteers

The ACLU SoCal also frequently accepts non-student volunteers who are both attorneys and non-attorneys. Volunteers should be able to commit to working at least 15 hours a week over eight weeks, in or out of the office, or the hourly equivalent over a shorter period of weeks. In addition to the information listed in the following section, please state in your application your intended hourly commitment and duration of volunteer service. Please understand that the nature of the work we do may not allow us to engage all who may be interested in contributing time. Please follow all application procedures described below. In addition, please include a list of references.

People who seek to volunteer less time can sign up here.

How to Apply

All applicants should submit the following via email (internship@aclusocal.org) or U.S. mail (email is strongly preferred):

  • Cover letter
  • Resume
  • Writing sample
  • Transcript (for current students)

In your subject line, please include the following information in brackets: your preferred subject area(s), your geographic preference(s), and the term for which you are applying. For example:

"Subject: [First Am/Immigration] [OC/IE/KERN/LA] [Summer 2024]" or "Subject: [Jails] [LA/OC/KERN IE] [FALL 2023]."

We encourage applicants to indicate no more than one subject area preference, but you may also list more than one or "[General]" as your preferred subject areas if you do not have a particular interest.

We are more likely to hire candidates with geographic flexibility. We cannot guarantee applicants' preferences and we may offer you a position outside of your areas of interest or geographic preference depending on our needs.

Applications delivered by e-mail to internship@aclusocal.org are strongly preferred. However, applications can be submitted by U.S. mail to:

Internship Coordinator
ACLU Foundation of Southern California
1313 West Eighth St., Suite 200
Los Angeles, California 90017

 

 

Criminal Justice

The ACLU SoCal is currently accepting applications for interns who are interested in working on abolition and criminal legal system issues.

Our office works closely with community partners to conduct impactful advocacy and litigation on several criminal legal system issues in California.

We, through the affiliate's Jails Project (please see Jails Project's posting for more information), achieved a historic settlement in Rosas v. Baca, a federal class action lawsuit that alleged former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and his command staff condoned a long-standing and widespread pattern of violence by deputies against people incarcerated in the jails. Under the settlement, the Sheriff's Department adopted a plan that includes implementation of robust policies to prevent abuse of people who are incarcerated, enhancement in training in use of force for all veteran deputies and new hires, as well as radically enhanced methods for tracking and review of use of force incidents and the complaints and grievances of incarcerated people. In another lawsuit, McKibben v. McMahon, we challenged the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department's disparate treatment of gay, bisexual, and transgender people housed in the West Valley Detention Center's "Alternative Lifestyle Tank," where they are denied equal time out of cell and access to religious, educational, rehabilitative, and vocational programming and are regularly subject to harassment by deputies and custody specialists.

Beyond our litigation, we work with our community partners on a broad array of local and statewide advocacy priorities, including reducing the number of people incarcerated, increasing community-based diversion and alternatives to incarceration, and holding law enforcement accountable.

Our interns will have an opportunity to conduct legal research, drafting, and analysis for our ongoing litigation and policy projects, and may work on public education, community engagement, advocacy, legislation, and monitoring efforts.

For more information on opportunities to intern in the Jails Project, please see the Jails Project posting below.

Undergrads, law school students, students in other academic programs, and non-students are encouraged to apply. We are seeking interns for our Los Angeles, Orange County and Inland Empire offices year round.

 

Economic Justice

ACLU SoCal is currently accepting applications for interns who are interested in working on economic justice issues. Our economic justice work falls in three main areas: challenging the criminalization of poverty; expanding access to basic human needs like housing and healthcare, with a particular focus on protecting the rights of the homeless; and advancing affirmative legal rights to basic human needs. Our office has been at the forefront of litigation and advocacy on a growing number of economic justice issues in California.

For example, in Victor Valley Family Resource Center v. City of Hesperia, we challenged the City of Hesperia's attempts to unlawfully restrict housing and support services for individuals with criminal records in violation of state law and the federal constitution.

In Glover v. City of Laguna Beach, we challenged Laguna Beach's criminalization and harassment of homeless persons, as well as its lack of resources for the homeless, as violating the ADA, the Eighth Amendment and due process.

In Santiago v. Los Angeles, we challenged the LAPD's policy and practice of seizing and destroying street vendors' property as violating the Fourth Amendment and due process.

In Tyson v. San Bernardino, we challenged the City’s practice of summarily destroying unhoused people’s essential personal property (including medical devices and important paperwork), as well as the City’s failure to provide disability accommodations to unhoused people during its encampment removal operations.

In addition to this ongoing litigation, our office is actively engaged in community engagement and policy advocacy at the local and state level on a broad array of economic justice issues, including: campaigns to raise/restore revenues to fund basic human needs services; repeal court and criminal administrative fines and fees; reform excessive debt-collection policies that further keep people experiencing poverty poor; advance the right to healthcare and housing; expand rights to paid sick days and family leave; and increase access to affordable housing.

Our legal interns will have an opportunity to conduct legal research, drafting, and analysis for our ongoing litigation and policy projects. Legal interns also will assist in public education, community engagement, advocacy, legislation, and monitoring efforts.

Our non-legal interns will have the opportunity to work on active campaigns, develop public education materials, give know your rights presentations to community members, attend coalition meetings, and perform drafting and data analysis for our reports.

Undergrads, law school students, and students in other academic programs are encouraged to apply. We are seeking interns for our Orange County, Inland Empire and Los Angeles offices for the summer, fall, and spring academic terms.

 

 

Education, Student Rights & Juvenile Justice

The ACLU SoCal is currently accepting applications for interns who are interested in working on education, student rights, and juvenile justice issues.

Our office has been at the forefront of litigation and advocacy on a number of education and student rights issues in California.

For example, in Reed v. State of California, we filed a class action lawsuit against the State of California and Los Angeles Unified School District to enjoin budget-based layoffs at three Los Angeles middle schools because they denied students their fundamental right under the California constitution to equal educational opportunity.

In DJ v. State of California, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of parents, students, and a former administrator against the State of California for its failure to respond to reports that school districts did not provide essential language instruction to English learner students.

Most recently, in Cruz v. State of California, we filed a class action lawsuit against the State of California for failing to address the factors that reduce actual student learning time, denying students at low-income schools an equal education.

In Sigma Beta Xi vs. County of Riverside, we filed a class action lawsuit against the County of Riverside’s Youth Accountability Team (YAT) program, which subjected children to intrusive government searches and restrictions, disproportionately affected youth of color,  and violated constitutional rights by coercing participation without due process.

Most recently, in Mark S. v. State of California, we filed a lawsuit against the State of California and Pittsburg Unified School District for maintaining a separate, unequal, and illegal educational system where Black Students, students with disabilities, and English learners are segregated in substandard learning environments, excluded from classrooms through the use of unwarranted suspensions and expulsions, and, as a result, denied their constitutional right to a public education free from discrimination.  

Beyond our litigation, we are also actively involved in community advocacy and legislative efforts to shape education policy. For example, we currently are a leader in overseeing the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula, which is the new way school districts receive funding in California. We also are involved in a wide variety of student discipline and campus police issues, including leading a campaign to remove LAUSD's random student metal detector policy and writing reports about school policies and the school-to-prison pipeline.

Our legal interns will conduct legal research, drafting, and analysis for our ongoing litigation and policy projects. In previous years, our interns met with teachers and students to draft declarations, assisted in drafting legal briefs, and helped our attorneys prepare for depositions. Legal interns also assist in public education efforts by drafting know-your-rights materials and helping conduct presentations.

Our non-legal interns will participate in community engagement, policy advocacy, workshop development and presentation, campaign development, and coalition building. The internship will mainly focus on campaign support, issue-based projects, reports, and intakes.

Undergrads, law school students, and students in other academic programs are encouraged to apply; however, you need not be enrolled in a higher education program. We are seeking interns for both our Los Angeles and Inland Empire offices for the summer, fall, and spring academic terms.

 

 

First Amendment

The ACLU SoCal is currently accepting applications for interns who are interested in working on First Amendment, government transparency, and voting rights.

We do First Amendment work on issues relating to freedom of speech and protest, and free exercise of religion. We also work on Public Records Act and Open Meetings issues to ensure the government remains transparent and allows for meaningful public participation so they may hold government accountable.

As part of our voting work, we provide legal, organizing, and mapping support to our partners that are engaged in decennial redistricting and/or California Voting Rights Act work, advocate in support of legislation that expands the franchise and makes voting easier and more accessible to Californians, and conduct local advocacy to ensure that voters are not being disenfranchised.  

Here is a sample of our First Amendment, government transparency cases, and voting cases:

In Rosebrock v. Beiter, we challenged a practice by the VA in Los Angeles of allowing people to hang American flags on the perimeter fence of the VA campus, while forbidding our client to hang an American flag upside as a form of protest of the misuse of VA land.

In Davies v. County of Los Angeles, we represented a diverse group of religious leaders and educators challenging the decision by the County to add a Latin Cross to the County seal and succeeded in obtaining a permanent injunction.

In ACLU/Preven v. Los Angeles, we litigated under the California Public Records Act whether the County can withhold billing records showing how much it is paying private lawyers hired to defend the County and the Sheriff's Department in numerous suits challenging excessive force and other illegal acts by the Department. We obtained an important victory for government transparency in the California Supreme Court.

We are currently litigating People's Homeless Taskforce v. County of Orange, challenging multiple policies and practices adopted by the Orange County Board of Supervisors, including the Board's prohibition on addressing individual supervisors at public meetings and its policy authorizing the immediate destruction of public records.

We are currently litigating Doe v. City of McFarland, a challenge under the Brown Act to McFarland City Council’s decision to severely limit public access to its meetings, including a meeting where the Council made the highly controversial decision to permit the opening of two immigration detention facilities.

In Moreno v. City of Anaheim, we successfully challenged the City Council’s at-large election system that diluted the voting power of Latinx voters. Following a settlement and a series of public hearings and workshops, the City of Anaheim adopted a district map that provides Latinx voters had a real opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.

In addition to litigation, we attempt to protect the First Amendment and further government transparency through developing "Know Your Rights" material and attempting to resolve what we perceive to be First Amendment and other violations through advocacy short of litigation. In the voting rights space, we provide trainings to our partners and the public. We also provide the public with information about upcoming elections, including information on voting options.

Our legal interns will have an opportunity to conduct legal research, drafting, and analysis for our ongoing litigation and policy projects. Legal interns may also assist in public education, community engagement, advocacy, legislation, and monitoring efforts.

Law school students interested in this work are encouraged to apply. We are seeking interns for our Los Angeles and Orange County offices for the summer, fall, and spring academic terms.

 

 

Immigrants' Rights

ACLU SoCal's Immigrants' Rights Project accepts applications for internships on a rolling basis. Our office has been at the forefront of litigation and advocacy on a number of immigrants' rights issues. We are currently focused on three main areas: access to counsel, immigration detention, and immigration enforcement.

Our access to counsel work focuses on ensuring that no one can be deported without legal assistance and a fair hearing. J.E.F.M. v. Holder challenges the government's failure to provide appointed counsel to pro se children facing deportation. In the landmark victory in our Franco-Gonzalez v. Holder case, the Court established basic protections for immigrants with mental disabilities, including the right to appointed counsel and the right to robust competency determination procedures. We are also actively engaged in advocacy efforts regarding public funding for immigration counsel.

Our immigration detention work ensures that detained immigrants are guaranteed their basic due process rights. Jennings v. Rodriguez challenges the government's policy of detaining immigrants for prolonged periods without providing them a bond hearing and it is currently being litigated in the U.S. Supreme Court. In Hernandez v. Lynch, we seek to require the government to consider immigrants' ability to pay a bond and non-monetary alternatives in setting conditions of release. We also regularly monitor conditions in immigration detention facilities, provide individual legal assistance where possible, and advocate to reform immigration detention.

We currently are a leader in efforts to stop the entanglement of immigration and local law enforcement. We strive to ensure that law enforcement agencies do not unlawfully engage in immigration enforcement and that all individuals have equal access to immigration benefits and are not treated in a discriminatory manner. Through a recent victory in Gonzalez v. ICE, a federal judge issued a permanent injunction blocking ICE from issuing arrest requests based solely on error-ridden electronic databases. We are also challenging the government's discriminatory practices in unlawfully delaying and denying the immigration benefit applications of many Muslim individuals, under a covert program known as CARRP. See http://www.aclusocal.org/CARRP.

Our legal interns will have an opportunity to conduct legal research, drafting, and analysis for our ongoing litigation and policy projects. Legal interns also will assist in public education, community engagement, advocacy, legislation, and monitoring efforts.

Our non-legal interns will have the opportunity to work on active campaigns, develop public education materials, assist with know your rights presentations to community members, attend coalition meetings, and perform drafting and data analysis for our reports.

Undergrads, law school students, and students in other academic programs are encouraged to apply. We are seeking interns for our Inland Empire, Los Angeles, and Orange County offices for the summer, fall, and spring academic terms. Preference for students with Spanish or other foreign language proficiency.

 

 

Jails Project (LA/OC)

Jails Project Los Angeles

The ACLU SoCal is soliciting applications from individuals interested in working on Los Angeles County Jails advocacy within the Criminal Justice team. The ACLU SoCal is the court-ordered monitor of conditions of confinement within all Los Angeles County jail facilities, the largest jail system in the nation.

“Conditions” refers to beds, plumbing, clothing, meals, LGBTQ+ classification, recreation, proper medical and mental health care, telephones, overcrowding, indigent kits, commissary, protective custody, religious services, mail, allegations of violence and retaliation and other similar issues that arise in custody.

Through advocacy, public education, and litigation, we work to ensure that a basic standard of care is provided to incarcerated people. We also work with community partners on county-wide decarceration efforts, including the push to close Men’s Central Jail and fund alternatives to incarceration.

This is a great learning opportunity for any student thinking about a career in law or public service that centers advocating for the justice-involved community and those who want experience providing individual assistance to incarcerated people and a window into the issues they face. All, regardless of background, are welcome to apply. People who have been impacted by incarceration in some way are particularly encouraged to apply.

Duties may include:

  • Screening written and telephone complaints by incarcerated people regarding conditions in the LA County Jails
  • Conducting in-person jails visits and/or interviews with incarcerated individuals.
  • Analyzing and inputting responses received from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to ensure they are responsive and meet legal standards
  • Speaking to people whose loved ones are in the LA County Jails in order to file grievances or direct them to resources
  • Assisting ACLU SoCal staff with jails conditions advocacy in community-based organizations and with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department

If the ACLU SoCal is involved in active litigation involving those incarcerated in LA County jails, interns may assist with drafting and gathering declarations/narratives from incarcerated or previously incarcerated individuals. Those who speak, read, and write Spanish fluently would be especially helpful, but any second language can be useful.

Jails Project Orange County

The ACLU SoCal Criminal Justice/Jails Project OC team is seeking interns to assist with examining conditions in Orange County jails and advocating with people in custody and their loved ones.

“Conditions” refers to housing assignments, medical and mental health care, LGBTQIA classification, grievance system, religious services, allegations of violence and retaliation and other related issues.

Interns will assist with staffing the Incarcerated People’s Hotline, collecting narratives and declarations that may support ACLU litigation, flagging administrative advocacy issues, as well as thinking creatively about other forms of advocacy to support the campaign to stop jail expansion in OC.

Interns will be supervised by Jacob Reisberg, jails conditions and policy advocate and attorney, and Daisy Ramirez, jails conditions and policy coordinator.

Students with lived experience with the criminal legal system, previous civil rights work experience, or a demonstrated interest in civil rights work, are especially encouraged to apply.

Interns must commit to volunteer a minimum of six hours per week. Those who speak, read and write Spanish fluently would be especially helpful, but any second language can be useful.

 

 

LGBTQ, Gender & Reproductive Justice Project

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California's (ACLU SoCal) LGBTQ, Gender, and Reproductive Justice Project (the "Project") is currently accepting applications for interns/externs to work in our Los Angeles and San Bernardino offices.

Our project focuses on LGBTQ rights, reproductive justice and gender equity.  We accomplish this work through strategic and impactful legal advocacy, litigation, policy advocacy, public education, and community organizing to enforce existing legal protections and create new ones. Our current projects/cases involve:

  • Sex worker rights and decriminalizing sex work;
  • The Family Policing (child welfare) system and its disparate impact on Black, Brown and Indigenous families;
  • LGBTQ student rights, implementation of California’s comprehensive sex ed laws, and responding to forced outing policies;
  • Reproductive and gender justice for incarcerated people in California’s jails and prisons, including the rights of transgender incarcerated people;
  • Pregnancy and breastfeeding discrimination in employment;
  • Sexual harassment of unhoused persons in homeless shelters;
  • Discrimination against trans individuals in housing and public accommodations.

We accomplish our goals through impact litigation, policy advocacy, activist engagement, and community organizing to enforce existing legal protections and create new ones. Law students who work in the LGBTQ, Gender, and Reproductive Justice Project will have an opportunity to conduct legal research and policy analysis, interview potential clients, participate in coalition meetings, and support lobbying efforts. Non-legal interns will typically contribute to the development and distribution of know-your-rights resources, support community organizing and outreach efforts, research facts and context for legal and policy matters, and help process Public Records Act requests.

Undergrads, law school students, and students in other academic programs are encouraged to apply. We take interns for fall, spring and summer terms.

Police Practices and National Security

The ACLU of Southern California is currently accepting applications for legal interns interested in assisting the office's police accountability, national security, and anti-Muslim discrimination work.

This office has long been a leader in changing local and national policing practices through our policy work and litigation. We focus on police use of force, racial and religious discrimination, civilian oversight and transparency, systems for police accountability and discipline, surveillance practices, counterterrorism and border policing, and police infringement on First Amendment rights.

Over the past five years, ACLU SoCal has worked with grassroots, labor and civil rights organizations to push major legislation making California's law governing police use of deadly force among the strongest in the nation, to safeguard the public's right to know about investigations into police use of force and findings of serious misconduct, and to strengthen California's prohibition on racial profiling and require collection of detailed data on every police stop made in the state. Working with our partners, we are now working on implementing and using these laws to unearth previously secret police misconduct, to help communities analyze data on stops by their local police departments, and to ensure California police agencies adopt strong policies and training on the use of deadly force.

ACLU SoCal also uses class action litigation and test cases to effect reform in a number of areas, such as:

  • Gang Injunctions. In Vasquez v. Rackauckas, we filed a class action challenging police and prosecutors' practices in enforcing gang injunctions, winning an opinion from the Ninth Circuit holding that police and prosecutors violated class member's due process to a gang injunction based on police and prosecutors' one-sided determination they were gang members, and failed to provide them meaningful notice of the reasons for the accusation they were gang members and an opportunity to be heard on their side of the story. In Youth Justice Coalition v. City of Los Angeles, we sued the City of Los Angeles for violating the requirements of Vasquez, obtaining a preliminary injunction halting the City's enforcement of gang injunctions citywide.
  • Wrongful Arrest Practices In Mitchell v. Jeffries, we successfully sued the City of Bakersfield on behalf of a young black man illegally intimidated and arrested by city police officers for asserting his constitutional right to refuse to identify himself during a police stop in which he was a passenger in a car and not suspected of any wrongdoing.
  • Right to Record In Nee v. Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, we represented three photographers detained for taking photographs in public places, in part due to training that photography could be “suspicious activity” indicative of terrorism. We won a settlement requiring policy changes that recognized and protected civilians' First Amendment right to photograph, and damages for our clients.
  • Religious Targeting:
    • In Fazaga v. FBI, we filed a federal class action law suit against the Federal Bureau of Investigations for infiltrating mainstream mosques in Southern California and targeting Muslim Americans for surveillance because of their religion.
    • In Vayeghan v. Kelly, the ACLU of Southern California successfully represented an Iranian citizen with a valid visa denied entry to the United States following implementation of President Trump's Muslim ban.
  • Public Access to Police Records.
    • In ACLU of Southern California & Electronic Frontier Foundation v. LAPD & LASD, we successfully challenged local police departments' refusal to disclose records about the use of Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) systems — sophisticated cameras mounted on squad cars and street poles that read license plates and record the time, date, and location a particular car was encountered — under the Public Records Act.
    • In Los Angeles Police Protective League v. City of Los Angeles, we intervened in a police officer association's challenge to landmark legislation on police transparency and defeated the association's attempt to limit the new law.
    • In Winston v. City of Los Angeles, we sued the Los Angeles Police Department for systematically failing to respond to public records requests, winning a settlement that required restricting of the Department's public records response systems and new policies to ensure the preservation and timely disclosure of documents.
  • Racial Profiling. In KL v. City of Glendale, we represented high school students detained in a racially targeted gang operation, winning expungement of all information related to the operation from students files, as well as policy changes at multiple agencies to prevent similar operations from recurring.
  • Police Reform. In United States v. City of Los Angeles, we intervened on behalf of community organizations in a consent decree brought by the United States Department of Justice over the Los Angeles Police Department, and advocated for robust enforcement of provisions on racial profiling, use of force, and gang policing during more than a decade the consent decree was in effect.

Beyond our litigation and legislative work, we are also actively engaged in advocacy with municipalities and law enforcement agencies on shaping policies to govern the use of new surveillance technologies, such as body-worn cameras, and on state regulations related to policing on issues including gang databases and racial profiling data collection. In Los Angeles, we are campaigning to hold Los Angeles County Sheriff Villanueva accountable to his constituents. Our legal interns will have an opportunity to conduct legal research, drafting, and analysis for our ongoing litigation and policy projects in the national security context. Legal interns also will assist in public education, community engagement, advocacy, and legislative efforts.

Our non-legal interns will have the opportunity to work on active campaigns, develop public education materials, give know-your-rights presentations to community members, attend coalition meetings, and perform drafting and data analysis for our reports.

Undergraduates, law school students, and students in other academic programs are encouraged to apply. We are seeking interns for our Los Angeles, Kern, Orange County, and Inland Empire offices for the summer, fall, and spring academic terms.

 

 

Legal Intake

The ACLU SoCal has periodic openings for Interns and Volunteers who, primarily, conduct pre-screening interviews on the telephone and review written requests for legal services. Volunteers and Interns will encounter a wide breadth of legal and social issues from potential clients who have various factual circumstances and communication styles. Interested participants will, necessarily, need to extract certain types of information in an efficient and customer-friendly manner. Relevant information must then be reduced into a stylized record of the interview or review and entered into a data bank system. Other responsibilities include learning about and making appropriate referrals to other legal and social services. Participants receive a procedures manual, hands-on training, and other support throughout the experience.

No legal advice is given through intake, but appropriate cases are referred to the ACLU SoCal's legal staff via a chain of supervisory reviews. Cases that are not within the ACLU SoCal's guidelines are referred to other nonprofit agencies and community resources for possible help.

Throughout the history of the program, many student interns have gone on to law school and other professional education experiences. Likewise, many of our retirees and other volunteers have remained with the program for many years. The experience is a great resume builder, as well as an engaging and continuous learning experience.

We are seeking interns for our Los Angeles office.

Activist Engagement

 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) Activist Engagement and Development (AED) team is currently accepting applications for interns to work in our Los Angeles office.

The AED team works to build relationships with our volunteer supporters, recruit supporters to advance organizational education and policy priorities, and create access and opportunities so people can take action to fight back against attacks on civil liberties and civil rights. We accomplish our goals through activist engagement and leadership development, skill and issue based trainings, pressure actions (i.e., canvassing, phone banking, canvassing, rallies, petitions, etc.), community outreach, and issue based campaign work.

Undergrads and students in other academic programs are encouraged to apply.

 

 

 

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