News & Commentary

LOS ANGELES - U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson extended a temporary restraining order to end overcrowding in the county jail system's central processing hub during a hearing Monday. He also ordered the Sheriff's Department to submit a plan to improve jail conditions in 2007 before a Jan. 11 hearing.

ORANGE, Calif. - The trial of an Orange County teenager who filed a lawsuit last year against the Garden Grove Unified School District in an effort to stop discrimination and harassment of gay and lesbian students on campus concluded Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES - The ACLU of Southern California, civil rights attorney Carol Sobel, and law firm Hadsell & Stormer today asked a court to extend a 2003 agreement that prohibits L.A. police from searching Skid Row residents without prior knowledge they are on parole or reasonable suspicion they have committed a crime or violated parole or probation.

The ACLU/SC went to federal court to protect the rights of gay and lesbian high school students in Garden Grove. Charlene Nguon, a straight-A student in the top 5 percent of her class, was singled out for punishment after she hugged her girlfriend on campus. School administrators suspended her from school and outed her to her parents. She lost a chance at National Honor Society.

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO - A settlement agreement reached last night leaves the Capistrano Unified School District free to consider race when redrawing school attendance boundaries. The settlement affirms the importance of integration in public schools and the ability of school districts to take steps to avoid racially isolated schools.

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