News & Commentary

LOS ANGELES - Citing concerns that military recruiters target low-income students and students of color on the campuses of public schools in Los Angeles County, a group of teachers, parents, students and the American Civil Liberties Union joined together to demand more information about how the military recruits public school students

LOS ANGELES - A San Francisco judge finalized the historic settlement in Williams v. California today. The lawsuit is a critical first step toward ensuring all California public schools have the means to provide equitable learning conditions for all students.

Today's decision is a landmark for the law and an important development for the entire nation.

LOS ANGELES - In a strongly-worded letter, the ACLU of Southern California along with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Gay-Straight Alliance Network and other members of the California Safe Schools Coalition demanded that an Orange County high school student be reinstated as editor-in-chief of her school newspaper and that her record be wiped clean.

LOS ANGELES - The city of Los Angeles is on the cusp of commissioning a report to analyze data collected each time an officer stops a pedestrian or searches a driver to help determine whether the LAPD engages in racial profiling. But the report will not look at the race or ethnicity of motorists who are stopped and therefore it will not consider the phenomenon of "Driving While Black/Brown."

SACRAMENTO - The ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse support legislation introduced by Senator Joe Simitian of Northern California that would prohibit identity documents issued by the state, including driver's licenses and library cards, from containing a microchip that contains personal information.

LOS ANGELES - In a letter to Sheriff Lee Baca and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, the ACLU of Southern California sought assurance that a county jail budget increase will end the practice of forcing inmates to sleep on the floor.

LOS ANGELES - County Supervisors and Sheriffs officials must ensure inmates in the seven jail facilities in Los Angeles have access to a bed, timely medical attention, clean clothes and showers in order to control the ongoing outbreak of a virulent form of staph infection. They must also employ an epidemiologist to monitor the bacteria immediately, say ACLU jails monitors.

Los Angeles - Southwestern Law School Professor Isabelle R. Gunning began her term as president of the ACLU of Southern California Tuesday after she was unanimously elected by the organization's executive board last month.