News & Commentary

Catherine Lhamon, the Racial Justice Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, today urged the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to file suit or join an existing lawsuit to overturn Proposition 8. Here is her statement:

SAN FRANCISCO - The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a writ petition before the California Supreme Court on Nov. 5, 2008 urging the court to invalidate Proposition 8. The petition charges that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution's core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group - lesbian and gay Californians. Proposition 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities. According to the California Constitution, such radical changes to the organizing principles of state government cannot be made by simple majority vote through the initiative process, but instead must, at a minimum, go through the state legislature first.

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LOS ANGELES, Calif. - A U.S. citizen who was illegally detained and twice deported to Mexico said immigration officials refused to believe his claim of citizenship, even when his mother traveled to the border to show Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents his birth certificate.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - A new report commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California shows that black and Hispanic residents are stopped, frisked, searched and arrested by Los Angeles Police Department officers far more frequently than white residents --dramatically demonstrating that the LAPD must do more to eliminate bias from its policing.

CHICAGO - Congress and the Bush White House overstepped their constitutional authority and violated the rights of millions of customers when they passed and approved legislation granting sweeping immunity to telecoms that collaborated in illegal spying. That assertion is contained in a court filing today by three California affiliates and the Illinois affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, along with other interested parties in cases consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The ACLU lawsuits filed on behalf of dozens of plaintiffs - including renowned Chicago journalist Studs Terkel, former California Congressman Tom Campbell, journalist Robert Scheer and actor Richard Belzer -- challenge the unlawful collaboration of major telecommunications' companies - including AT&T - with the Bush administration's warrantless dragnet surveillance of electronic communications and records.

The ACLU/SC has launched a public education campaign to fight misinformation about the rights people with felony convictions have to vote. Get the facts and know your rights: California residents who have finished their sentences and parole do have the right to vote. Individuals on probation also can vote. All you have to do to restore your rights and take back your voting power is to register to vote by Oct. 20th at the post office or DMV.

The ACLU/SC has launched a public education campaign to fight misinformation about the rights people with felony convictions have to vote. Get the facts and know your rights: California residents who have finished their sentences and parole do have the right to vote. Individuals on probation also can vote. All you have to do to restore your rights and take back your voting power is to register to vote by Oct. 20th at the post office or DMV. Click here to download a quick guide, and click here to download a complete toolkit. For more information, visit Every Vote Counts.