News & Commentary

LOS ANGELES - Historic talks concluded yesterday between Presidents George Bush and Vicente Fox on the vital importance of establishing humane treatment of immigrants in the United States. The urgency of the problem was underscored last week when LAPD officers, responding to a noise complaint in a Hollywood apartment building, conducted a nightmarish raid on 36 immigrants.

SAN FRANCISCO - Today in the California Supreme Court, the ACLU of Northern California, the ACLU of Southern California, the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, the League of Women Voters of California, the California Teachers Association (CTA), the Children's Advocacy Institute, Coleman Advocates For Children And Youth, and the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case Manduley v. Superior Court, in which the San Diego District Attorney is prosecuting eight teenagers as adults, an act made possible by the passage of Proposition 21, the "Gang Violence and Juvenile Crime Prevention Act," in March 2000.In the brief, the organizations argue that Proposition 21 is unconstitutional because it violates the single-subject rule of the California Constitution. The Court is expected to address this claim, along with constitutional challenges to the individual provision within Proposition 21 that enabled the minor defendants to be tried as adults in criminal court.

LOS ANGELES ? Attorneys for special education students and their parents filed a formal complaint today with the Consent Decree Administrators overseeing the Chanda Smith consent decree, an agreement requiring Los Angeles Unified School District to identify and educate special education students in a manner consistent with state and federal special education and civil rights laws.

LOS ANGELES - In a decisive victory for the free speech rights of artists, a federal court today dismissed Mattel's lawsuit which sought to stop artist Tom Forsythe from using the Barbie doll in an award-winning series of photographs that comments on the doll and the values it embodies. The victory, led by pro bono lead counsel Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, was complete. The judge granted summary judgment in favor of defendant Tom Forsythe and denied Mattel's motion for partial summary judgment. Unless Mattel decides to appeal, today's judgment will mark the end of the case.

LOS ANGELES - Four Los Angeles area activist groups sued Los Angeles and its police department in federal court today to stop the LAPD's policies and customs that violate protesters' Constitutional rights. The four groups �_ National Lawyers Guild, Los Angeles Chapter; Los Angeles Coalition to Stop the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Los Angeles Chapter of the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation; and D2K Convention Planning Coalition �_ brought the suit as a result of free speech violations that took place at two major protest events in Los Angeles in the last year, the protests at the Democratic National Convention between August 14 and August 17, 2000, and the October 22, 2000, protest against police brutality at the Parker Center.

LOS ANGELES - People for Community Empowerment, a coalition organizing around energy and other community issues, will be able to go ahead with a rally and parade starting at El Dorado Park in Long Beach on July 4, after winning a temporary restraining order yesterday against the City of Long Beach. People for Community Empowerment is represented by ACLU/SC co-operating attorney Carol Sobel.

ACLU co-operating attorney Carol Sobel filed suit in federal court today challenging the City of Long Beach's impediments to an activist community group, People for Community Empowerment, holding an Independence Day celebration at a city park.

LOS ANGELES - On June 26, the Glendale City Council, after hearing testimony in previous weeks from the ACLU and others, voted 4 in favor, 0 opposed, and 1 abstaining to add comprehensive protections against discrimination in the use of its Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds -- protections that prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, domestic partner status, pregnancy and parenthood, and AIDS/HIV status. The new law would prevent any organization that practices discrimination against anyone on these bases, such as the Boy Scouts of America, from receiving such funds.

LOS ANGELES - Students at Locke High School, who are routinely subjected to intrusive searches of their persons, papers, and belongings, took action today as plaintiffs in a suit filed on their behalf in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. The lawsuit, filed against various Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) officials, alleges that students' Fourth Amendment rights have been violated by the searches.