News & Commentary

LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California today filed a lawsuit against an Orange County-based foster family and adoption agency for discriminating against a lesbian couple who sought to become certified as a foster family, with the goal of adopting children in foster care.

RIVERSIDE, CA - Documents unsealed in federal court recently charge the Old Baldy Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Inc. with fraudulently obtaining taxpayer funds to sponsor recruitment activities in the cities of Montclair and Ontario. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California filed suit on behalf of an area resident and ACLU/SC board member, Glenn Goodwin, in August of 2002. The lawsuit has remained under seal until just recently, to give the U.S. Department of Justice time to decide whether to intervene.

LOS ANGELES -- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of a man who filed a sex discrimination claim against his former employer, MGM Grand Hotel, Inc. for sexual harassment he endured while working as a hotel butler in Las Vegas, Nevada. The decision overturns a lower court ruling in favor of MGM Grand and reinstates the plaintiff's case.

Toda

LOS ANGELES ? The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU/SC), representing employees of a Los Angeles child placement agency, Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services (GLASS), today filed a lawsuit against the Southern Counties Placement Committee and several county officials and agencies, for violating the GLASS employees' First Amendment right to express disagreement with the counties' choice of "Dr. Laura" Schlessinger as the keynote speaker at a county-sponsored conference in Palm Springs.

LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California hailed yesterday's expansion of domestic partners' rights, as Governor Gray Davis signed into law AB 25, Assemblymember Carole Migden's proposal to build the rights and responsibilities the state confers on those who register as domestic partners.

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.

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 - The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California praised yesterday's 43-29 vote in the California Assembly approving a bill to provide ten key protections to couples who register as domestic partners with the State of California. The bill, authored by Assemblymember Carole Migden, is supported by a broad coalition of groups in California, including the California Alliance for Pride and Equality (CAPE), the ACLU of Southern California, People For the American Way, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and others.