News & Commentary

COSTA MESA - Orange County Superior Court Judge Kelly MacEachern dismissed criminal charges against Coyotl Tezcatlipoca, an Orange Coast College student at the center of a much-publicized free-speech case in Costa Mesa. The judge questioned prosecutor Danny Peelman's credentials and found that the local private attorney had not been appointed or sworn in as a public prosecutor as required by the California Constitution. Judge MacEachern stated that Mr. Peelman's failure to follow the law amounted to 'a denial of due process' for Tezcatlipoca.

LOS ANGELES - In a breakthrough ruling that affects more than 25,000 California children suffering from serious mental illness, U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz has ordered an expert to oversee the expansion of home- and community-based mental health services for children who would otherwise end up in costly group homes and institutions.

LOS ANGELES - More than a year ago leading Muslim Americans requested basic information about FBI surveillance in Southern California, seeking to calm community fears of spying at mosques and surveillance of community groups and community leaders. To date, the government has turned over only four pages of documents.

 

LOS ANGELES — The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California today asked Congress to hold the White House in contempt. Having disregarded the second deadline for compliance with Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenas, the White House, Office of the Vice President and Department of Justice can now be held in contempt of Congress.