News & Commentary

Washington, DC -- The Supreme Court today ruled that immigrants have no right to object to being targeted for deportation based on their association with a political group. In an astounding decision that reached an issue neither party had even briefed, the Court effectively denied to all immigrants in this country the same First Amendment rights that U.S. citizens enjoy.

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."

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.

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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The American Civil Liberties Union joins with the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and other concerned individuals and organizations during this the "National Week of Action Against Immigration Raids" in calling for an end to abusive immigration raids. The abuses documented in various media accounts and in numerous court cases cannot be ignored. There is no excuse for physical and verbal abuses by INS officials, and there is no room for ethnic stereotyping in immigration enforcement or, for that matter, in other law enforcement activities.

The ACLU of Southern California today sent a letter to the San Bernardino County Coroner's Office protesting the release of more than 50 fetuses to church groups in Chino, Chino Hills and Montclair for the purpose of holding religious memorial and burial services this evening and tomorrow. The ACLU has threatened to sue the County for violating the First Amendment's requirement of the separation of church and state if the fetuses are released to the church groups for the express purpose of holding religious services.

Important legislation to measure discrimination in traffic stops was vetoed by Governor Wilson. The "California Traffic Stops Statistics Act," also known as the "Driving While Black or Brown" (DWB) bill, would have made it possible to keep tabs on racial bias, by requiring law enforcement to collect and report statistical information for a three-year period on the race of motorists pulled over by police.