News & Commentary

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.

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.

In the first Circuit Court decision stopping a state from using the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act to reduce public benefits to new residents, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld the June 4 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge David Levi blocking California's attempt to reduce public assistance benefits to eligible new state residents.

The ACLU of Southern California today filed a federal lawsuit (Beauchamp vs Los Angeles County MTA) against the Metropolitan Transit Authority and a bus company, Ryder/ATE, Inc., on behalf of five disabled bus riders in Los Angeles County charging that these transportation agencies do not adequately serve disabled riders. The lawsuit charges that the MTA and Ryder/ATE are violating the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act and the 1974 Rehabilitation Act by discriminating against riders with mobility impairments.

Today, Alliance Housing Management, Inc., defendant in Des Verney vs Alliance Housing Management, sent the ACLU of Southern California a letter saying it will withdraw its requirement that residents of its government-subsidized properties located in Venice, California sign a lease agreement which would hold them responsible for crimes committed by visitors, even if those crimes occur as far as three blocks from the residence. On November 22, the ACLU filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of three low-income tenants of a U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) subsidized development in Venice. The tenants faced imminent eviction because they refused to sign the unconstitutional lease agreement. Plaintiffs are residents of Holiday Venice Properties, which include 256 units in fifteen buildings in Venice, California.