News & Commentary

The California Office of AIDS has promised to revise its existing jail policy so that all HIV-positive inmates, regardless of what charges are pending against them, will have access to life saving HIV medications. This development, which will help prevent jail terms from becoming de facto death sentences for those with HIV, is credited to the tireless efforts of ACLU Staff Attorney Mary Sylla and was featured prominently in Special Council Merrick J. Bobb's semi-annual report on Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD).

The ACLU of Southern California urged the federal government today to allow New York Times best-selling author Peter McWilliams to use physician-recommended marijuana as part of his treatment for AIDS, which has worsened dramatically since the government prohibited his use of the drug. "This is precisely the reason that the people of California - like those in 5 other western states - enacted a law legalizing the medical use of marijuana," said ACLU attorney Taylor Flynn. "After Mr. McWilliams and his doctor had successfully kept the HIV virus in check for two and a half years with the use of medical marijuana, the federal government in August 1998 prohibited Mr. McWilliams from using this essential medication as a condition of his release on bail. Within a few months, the amount of the HIV virus in his blood had increased twenty-fold and his life is in danger."

Today the California Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that the District Attorney's office and the Los Angeles Police Department wrongly withheld evidence which denied Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt the right to a fair trial.

"We are both saddened and outraged about the senseless and cowardly attack on Mr. Truong Van Tran. It is ironic that only a few hours after the judge vindicated the rule of law and allowed Mr. Tran to engage in peaceful political speech, he became the victim of mob violence. Mr. Tran displayed uncommon courage in pursuing his right to express his opinion through the legal system. Those who oppose him by breaking the law obviously do not understand their responsibilities as citizens of a free society and a constitutional democracy."

Today the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California joined the defense of Truong Van Tran, who leases a store in an Orange County shopping center, and was recently ordered by an Orange County Superior Court Judge to remove a picture of Ho Chi Minh and the current flag of the Republic of Vietnam from the walls of his store. The court issued the order on the grounds that the flag and picture, which caused protest in the strongly anti-Communist community in Westminster, is a public nuisance, which is barred by Mr. Tran's lease.

Wednesday, January 13, 1999 the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments in Anderson vs Roe, California's challenge to the Ninth Circuit decison blocking the state from limiting welfare payments to new state residents.

The California Department of Education, the Compton Unified School District and the plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Robert Myers of Newman. Aaronson & Vanaman and attorney Karl Manheim, today announced an agreement on improvement of school facilities and educational services in the Compton Unified School District.

At a press conference on Monday, December 14, 1998, the ACLU of Southern California spoke out against the House Judiciary Committee's vote to impeach the President. The ACLU/SC charges that the impeachment proceedings have produced serious threats to civil liberties and to the constitutional structure on which they depend.

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