News & Commentary

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.

Los Angeles - A UC Irvine junior studying in France, and hundreds of her current and future classmates, can now participate in demonstrations abroad without risking disciplinary action.

LOS ANGELES - Students returning to school today will see a difference in their classrooms.

LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union and the State of California reached a settlement agreement in the class action education lawsuit Williams v. California in August 2004. The Williams lawsuit was originally filed in May 2000 by the ACLU, the law firm of Morrison & Foerster, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Public Advocates, Inc., and other groups on behalf of California students who attended substandard schools in California, and charged the state with reneging on its constitutional obligation to provide students with the bare essentials necessary for education: sufficient instructional materials, adequate learning facilities, qualified teachers, etc.

LOS ANGELES - Nearly six months after hundreds of people were arrested outside of bus stations, schools and hospitals for alleged immigration violations, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit seeking Border Patrol records after the agency repeatedly ignored requests for records related to the raids under the Freedom of Information Act. The suit was filed in federal court in the central district of California.

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LOS ANGELES - The California affiliates of the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit today stating that Proposition 69 is unconstitutional. The case challenges those portions of the law that require DNA testing of people who are arrested for a felony and never charged or later found innocent, and people who have been convicted of a felony but have already served their debt to society and are no longer under any supervision by the criminal justice system.

LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union told the Housing Authority of Santa Monica today to stop stalling and allow a gay man to live with his partner of 10 years.