News & Commentary

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The ACLU of Southern California sued the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service today for denying a 50-year-old Egyptian Muslim man’s naturalization application based on misleading FBI files and questionable tactics. This disturbing denial is part of what the ACLU/SC, the Council on American Islamic Relations and the National Immigration Law Center believe is a broader pattern of racial and religious profiling in the naturalization process aimed at blocking citizenship for individuals of Muslim countries and coercing them to become FBI informants.

WASHINGTON – In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court today remanded a case concerning a Latin cross in the Mojave National Preserve back to the district court, saying that the lower court used the wrong legal standard in deciding to invalidate a transfer of the land on which the cross stands to private ownership. The American Civil Liberties Union will continue to argue that the transfer does not remedy the government’s unconstitutional endorsement of one particular religion.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – On Tuesday, a majority of Lancaster voters approved a ballot measure in support of religious prayers at the invocation of city meetings. The ACLU of Southern California opposes the unlawful and divisive use of sectarian prayers at official government meetings of any kind, because the practice violates one of the most basic tenets of the Constitution: the Establishment Clause, which clearly prohibits government from showing favoritism toward any religion. A prayer in the name of Jesus or a Hindu god or any other religious deity also alienates followers of other denominations, as well as nonbelievers.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court heard arguments today in an American Civil Liberties Union case addressing whether Congress - transfer to private owners of a small parcel of land with a Latin cross on it in the Mojave National Preserve remedies the Establishment Clause violation found by the lower courts. The ACLU argued that transferring the land – with a cross on it designated by Congress as a national memorial -- to the Veterans of Foreign Wars does not cure the government's unconstitutional endorsement of one religion over another.

Peter Eliasberg will appear before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to argue Salazar v. Buono, an important First Amendment case concerning a cross erected by private citizens in California's Mojave National Preserve. Here are some of his thoughts on the eve of arguing the case before the nation's highest court.

An op-ed opinion piece, mistakenly identified as a Sacramento Bee editorial, rehashed misleading statements and made many more about our Mojave cross case, which will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7. Ramona Ripston, ACLU/SC Executive Director, responds.

The

SANTA ANA, Calif. – The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California filed a class-action lawsuit today against Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and the City of Orange Police Department for illegally placing dozens of residents under a gang injunction after first deliberately preventing them from arguing in court that they don’t belong to a gang.

by Peter Eliasberg, ACLU/SC managing attorney and Manheim Family Attorney for First Amendment Rights