News & Commentary

LOS ANGELES - The ACLU of Southern California today filed a lawsuit supporting protesters' right to gather and engage in free speech such as marching, passing out leaflets, and holding vigils near the Staples Center during the Democratic National Convention. The lawsuit challenges a plan developed by the Los Angeles Police Department that blocks groups from using a huge swath of public property around the Center, preventing them from communicating to their target audience -- convention delegates and public officials in attendance. Plaintiffs in the case include the Service Employees International Union, Local 660; the Los Angeles Coalition to Stop the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the D2K Convention Planning Coalition, all of whom plan peaceful protests near the convention site.

LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California applauded the U.S. Supreme Court's dual affirmation of suspects' Miranda rights today. In Dickerson, Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote for the majority that law enforcement officers must warn criminal suspects of their rights under the landmark 1966 Miranda decision, including their right to remain silent. In California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ) v. Butts, a case filed by the ACLU of Southern California against the Los Angeles and Santa Monica Police Departments, the Supreme court refused to hear the appeal pressed by the cities, letting stand a ruling by a federal court in Los Angeles that police interrogation after a suspect has requested an attorney or invoked his or her right to remain silent violates a person's rights under Miranda.

LOS ANGELES - Civil rights groups that are part of the landmark Williams v. State of California education case announced that they have established a statewide toll-free hotline (1-877-53-CAL-ED or 1-877-532-2533) for parents, teachers, and students whose schools have failed to offer the bare minimum conditions for successful learning, conditions ranging from a lack of textbooks, to untrained teachers, to filthy, run-down buildings.

LOS ANGELES - The David Bohnett Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California today announced the creation of the Bohnett Fellowship at the ACLU of Southern California, a staff attorney position that will focus on gay and lesbian civil rights litigation. Attorney Martha Matthews, Esq., most recently of the National Youth Law Center, has been chosen to fill the position. The Bohnett Fellow at the ACLU of Southern California is the only dedicated position funded thus far by the David Bohnett Foundation.

LOS ANGELES - In an effort to protect individuals' rights to engage in commercial speech, the ACLU, along with the law firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, filed a lawsuit in federal court that challenges a Los Angeles City ordinance that prevents people from putting "FOR SALE" signs in cars parked on public streets. The lawsuit targets Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 80.75 as a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Liberty of Speech Clause of the California Constitution.

LOS ANGELES - Today, on the 46th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, civil rights groups and attorneys in California filed the most comprehensive lawsuit concerning the bare minimums required for education ever to be brought against a state. The historic class-action lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court on behalf of students in eighteen schools located throughout California. The lawsuit charges the state with having reneged on its constitutional obligation to provide at least the bare essentials necessary for education to all students. The suit also charges California with having violated state and federal requirements that equal access to public education be provided without regard to race, color, or national origin.

LOS ANGELES, CA - City Council Members were asked to vote today in support of the newly gutted racial profiling bill, but raised questions about the bill's efficacy and its lack of a data collection mandate. The Council referred the motion to committee.

LOS ANGELES, CA - "Governor Davis and Senator Murray have colluded in creating a truly empty piece of legislation," said Catherine Lhamon, staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern

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