News & Commentary

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The ACLU of Southern California and the law firm of Irell & Manella LLP along with Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, have jointly sued Laguna Beach over the affluent beach city's unconstitutional and inhumane policy of harassing, intimidating, citing and arresting disabled homeless people. The lawsuit - on behalf of certain homeless residents -- was filed today in federal district court in Orange County.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Los Angeles Unified School District must continue to run desegregation programs that provide all children access to a quality education, a state court of appeal ruled today in a decision that agreed with the ACLU of Southern California's position that the key programs should stand.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Los Angeles City Council has approved a settlement that bans LAPD officers patrolling Skid Row from conducting unconstitutional searches of homeless individuals, and requires that officers undergo crucial training regarding the constitutional requirements to search and detain people.

Over three months ago, a U.S. citizen named Naji Hamdan was arrested by the State Security forces of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). He was detained without charges or access to a lawyer until the ACLU filed a lawsuit on his behalf. He has since been released into criminal custody in the U.A.E., and reports that he was severely tortured while in detention, apparently in the presence of American officials. Throughout, the U.S. government claimed to know nothing about why he was detained.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The U.S. Embassy will protest to the government of the United Arab Emirates regarding the treatment of American citizen Naji Hamdan, who was severely tortured during the three months he was imprisoned by state security forces in the U.A.E.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - An American man detained in the United Arab Emirates at the behest of the U.S. government has been released from state security custody and transferred to a prison in Abu Dhabi, but only after suffering severe torture. Naji Hamdan's transfer came only one week after lawyers for the ACLU of Southern California filed a lawsuit seeking his release.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The ACLU of Southern California has filed a lawsuit to force the release of an American citizen who has been imprisoned for 80 days without charge in the United Arab Emirates at the behest of the U.S. government.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - A U.S. citizen who was illegally detained and twice deported to Mexico said immigration officials refused to believe his claim of citizenship, even when his mother traveled to the border to show Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents his birth certificate.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - A new report commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California shows that black and Hispanic residents are stopped, frisked, searched and arrested by Los Angeles Police Department officers far more frequently than white residents --dramatically demonstrating that the LAPD must do more to eliminate bias from its policing.