LOS ANGELES - In an effort to calm the fears of worshipers, several Southern California area organizations and their leaders filed a Freedom of Information Act request today seeking answers from the FBI about suspected monitoring of religious institutions.

The ACLU of Southern California filed the request on behalf of six groups, including the Council on American Islamic Relations, the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California and area mosques, and six leaders in the Muslim community. The government has so far refused to explain repeated news reports describing FBI surveillance of mosques and numerous personal accounts from worshipers who were questioned about their faith at home and at work.

'We are people of faith and our mosques are peaceful and tolerant places of worship,' said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council. 'But people are being scared away from worship because of reports that mosques and those who pray at them are being monitored. People are afraid that practicing their religion or even visiting a mosque will make them a suspect of the government.'

The government has 20 business days to respond to this request, which seeks information pertaining to whether area mosques and community leaders are being monitored and if so, why, said Ranjana Natarajan, staff attorney for the ACLU/SC.

"We firmly believe that mosques are peaceful places of worship and we will continue to meet with law enforcement officials and cooperate in legitimate law enforcement investigations," said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR. "However, it is our right to expect transparency from our government.'

The ACLU has filed FOIA requests in 20 states on behalf of more than 150 organizations and individuals including advocates for the environment, animal rights, labor, religion, Native American rights, fair trade, grassroots politics, peace, social justice, nuclear disarmament, human rights and civil liberties. So far the government has released documents that reveal FBI monitoring and infiltration by the FBI and local law enforcement, targeting political, environmental, anti-war and faith-based groups around the country.

LOS ANGELES - After touring Men's Central Jail Wednesday evening, a federal judge today ordered representatives of the Los Angeles' Sheriff's Department and the Board of Supervisors to meet with the ACLU of Southern California over the next two weeks in order to develop a comprehensive plan to improve conditions at Men's Central Jail, the largest jail in the country.

Judge Dean D. Pregerson asked the ACLU and the county to present a jails reform plan to him at a hearing scheduled for May 25.

The following statement can be attributed to Jody Kent, coordinator of the jails project at the ACLU of Southern California.

After a comprehensive tour of Men's Central Jail yesterday, we are pleased that Judge Pregerson agreed with the ACLU of Southern California that the living conditions at Men's Central Jail must be improved.

The ACLU is encouraged that the Court shares our concerns with regard to cell overcrowding. The judge noted that inmates are crammed into cells where they remain locked down nearly twenty-four hours a day, with barely any room to stand up, much less walk around. The Court noted that inmates remain in their beds day and night as a result. The judge said that such conditions are "not consistent with basic values" and that they "should not be permitted to exist."

Overcrowded living conditions, a staffing shortage and insufficient fire safety measures have contributed to ongoing tension, violence and a general lack of safety for inmates and deputies in the jails and must be eliminated. We are encouraged that the County signaled its willingness to negotiate the issues the Court raised and we look forward to forging a long-term commitment with the County Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff's Department to develop a master plan to expeditiously improve conditions in the jails. To do this successfully we believe the Court's involvement in this process is imperative.

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today announced the election of the Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr., an internationally acclaimed civil rights leader and religious scholar, as Chair of its National Advisory Council.

"We are proud and honored to have this 'quiet giant' of the civil rights movement take the helm of the ACLU's National Advisory Council," said ACLU President Nadine Strossen. "Rev. Lawson is unquestionably a man of peace, but he is also a fierce warrior for justice who will not back down from a fight no matter how imposing the enemy is."

Rev. Lawson was elected to the position by the ACLU's 83-member board at its quarterly meeting on April 23. As Chair of the ACLU's National Advisory Council, he will act as an advisor to the ACLU on civil liberties matters as well as a public advocate for the issues the ACLU champions. The 56-member Advisory Council is a diverse group of prominent Americans who have demonstrated a deep commitment to civil liberties.

Rev. Lawson, 77, is well known in the civil rights community as a deputy and advisor to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who once called Rev. Lawson "the leading non-violence theorist in the world." He was at the forefront of the civil rights struggles of the 1960's as the mentor and leader of students who conducted the sit-ins that integrated the lunch counters, libraries and voting booths of the South, as well as the Freedom Riders who helped end forced segregation on buses and trains.

Despite the fall of segregation laws and the enforcement of voting rights, "the nation must still face up to the 'spiritual forces' of poverty, violence and sexism," Rev. Lawson told the Los Angeles Times in a 2004 profile.

Strossen noted that Rev. Lawson has been at the forefront of the 21st-century struggle for civil liberties and human rights. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Lawson became a founder of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, which includes Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Catholic and Protestant leaders, and calls on religions "to stop blessing war" and violence in all its forms.

He is also a spiritual leader in advocacy for equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, insisting that their struggle for equality under the law is part of the continuing quest for human rights and human dignity for all people.

Rev. Lawson retired in 1999 as senior pastor of the 2,700-member Holman United Methodist Church on West Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles. He has been an active member of the board of the ACLU of Southern California for the past 15 years. Since 2004, he has served a second term as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a group founded by Dr. King. Lawson is also chairman of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, which is in the forefront of a Los Angeles campaign for a living wage for hotel, garment and restaurant workers and others. In addition, Rev. Lawson will be a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Vanderbilt University for the 2006-7 academic year. This appointment is notable because he was expelled from Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1960 because of his civil rights activities.

The previous chair of the ACLU's National Advisory Council was the sociologist and pioneering civil rights leader Dr. Kenneth B. Clark, who held that position since 1991, a post he retained until his death on May 1, 2005. Dr. Clark's predecessor was Eleanor Holmes Norton, who served until she was elected to Congress. The chairmanship of the council is a three-year position. The Chair of the advisory council also serves as a member of the national Board of Directors of the ACLU.