News & Commentary

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Alarmed at the prospect of further overcrowding and violence in Los Angeles County’s jails, the American Civil Liberties Union today asked a judge to prevent the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department from closing a 1,600-bed jail facility without first preparing a detailed plan to cope with the potential for a serious worsening of conditions in other jails.

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Motion filed in response to judge’s call for information to resolve ‘factual disputes’

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A team of legal organizations applauded the city of Laguna Beach today for agreeing to settle a lawsuit over its treatment of disabled homeless people. The settlement agreement marks a significant shift away from the criminalization of homeless people and toward recognition of their membership in the community.

A new emergency standard proposed by California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to address the threat of heat-related illness to farmworkers and other outdoor laborers is totally inadequate, and only underscores the state’s failure to provide an effective system to protect the workers on whom California’s huge agricultural industry depends, a team of legal groups charged today.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A three-judge panel today upheld the Los Angeles Police Department’s use of Special Order 40 – a decades old policy prohibiting officers from using immigration status to initiate investigations. The decision by the California Court of Appeals strikes a balance between immigrants’ rights to equal protection and officers’ duty to protect communities.

Special Rapporteur Presents Findings Before U.N. Human Rights Council

U.S.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A federal judge today expressed concern that the Los Angeles Police Department continues to be out of compliance with key provisions of a federal consent decree imposed in the wake of the Rampart corruption scandal. Judge Gary Feess stopped short of extending the federal oversight that the decree mandates, but Feess agreed with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California that until the conditions of the decree are fully met, it is unlikely it could be legally lifted. He is expected to render a final ruling in the coming weeks.