News & Commentary

Today a coalition of civil rights groups in California released a report entitled REACHING FOR THE DREAM: Profiles In Affirmative Action. The report outlines 31 codes and related programs threatened by proposed legislation. The report also profiles eight Californians whose lives were changed by these vital programs. The report will be sent to Assembly and Senate members by the American Civil Liberties Union's California legislative office.

The California Court of Appeal today issued a decision allowing an Open Meeting Act lawsuit against the U.C. Regents and the Governor to go forward. The Court also said there is information to support plaintiffs' claim that the Governor and Regents broke the law.

In a case that has drawn national attention because of the multiplicity of issues it raises in surrogacy cases, a California Court of Appeal ruled today that a man and woman who contracted with a surrogate mother are the child's legal parents, even though the baby was born after the couple divorced.

The Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts of America was ordered late yesterday afternoon to consider Michael and William Randall's applications to become Eagle Scouts, Scouting's highest honor. In 1991, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California successfully brought suit to reinstate the twin boys, then 9 years old, after they were dismissed from Scouting for refusing to take an oath to God. The boys, who do not consider themselves to be atheists, explain that they do not understand what the word God means to them and thus do not feel comfortable taking an oath. After a trial in 1992, the Superior Court of Orange County held that the Orange County Council had discriminated against the boys on the basis of their religious beliefs in violation of California's civil rights statute, known as the Unruh Act.

This morning the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California challenged a motion for a preliminary injunction in a Superior Court lawsuit that would limit the residents of a HUD-subsidized housing project from inviting tenant organizers to their apartments to help improve conditions.

In a first-of-its-kind challenge to a growing national trend to force employees to waive their right to sue, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California filed lawsuits against two companies for firing an employee who refused to sign an agreement forcing him to accept binding arbitration to resolve any work-related disputes.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California is opposing legislation to be introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein as the Personal Privacy Protection Act which would criminalize constitutionally-protected activities by photographers. If passed, the measure would make it a federal crime to follow a celebrity for the purpose of taking photographs and impose a minimum sentence of five years if bodily injury occurs. In addition, the use of certain photographic equipment such as zoom lenses could be considered trespassing.

The ACLU of Southern California has won a major victory for low-income residents of HUD-subsidized housing. At a news conference this morning, the ACLU announced the signed settlement agreement in Des Verney vs Alliance Housing Management [97-8576 AAH (Mcx)], a federal lawsuit filed last November on behalf of three residents of Holiday Venice, a HUD-subsidized unit in Venice California.

On February 3, the District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed existing litigation challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 209 prior to its actual enforcement. Plaintiffs had previously requested that the Court dismiss this litigation in light of the Ninth Circuit ruling on April 8, 1997 upholding the measure against a facial, pre-enforcement constitutional challenge.