Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies are responsible for horrific head injuries, such as broken orbital bones and deep cuts on the face and head, which often send inmates to the hospital, according to a report released today by the ACLU of Southern California (ACLU/SC). The report, “Sheriff Baca’s Strike Force: Deputy Violence and Head Injuries of Inmates in LA County Jails,” compiles some 64 sworn statements from inmates, former inmates and civilian eyewitnesses taken since 2009, describing attacks in which deputies targeted inmates’ heads. It also provides substantial corroborating documentation, including photographs and medical records, and the opinion of a nationally recognized corrections expert on the impropriety of using head strikes, even when inmates are aggressive.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ruled that two community organizations may intervene to help defend a city policy relaxing when police may impound the vehicles of unlicensed drivers. Judge Terry Green today allowed the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles (CHIRLA), and LA Voice, represented by the ACLU of Southern California, to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the city’s Special Order 7, which allows unlicensed drivers to avoid impoundment if they have valid identification, insurance and registration. 

The ACLU of Southern California (ACLU/SC) has sent a letter to Orange County schools seeking their collaboration to end bullying, which plagues many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) students. The harassment and torment of bullies has significantly impacted the climate at several local schools, as well as the emotional and physical well-being of LGBTQ students.

A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction ordering federal immigration officials to provide bond hearings to potentially hundreds of immigrants detained across the Los Angeles area, where they can ask for release under appropriate conditions of supervision. The ruling by U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California Terry Hatter affects up to 500 asylum seekers and other detainees being held due to certain criminal offenses.

Many public school districts across New York State provide sex-ed instruction that is inaccurate, incomplete and biased, according to a report released today by the New York Civil Liberties Union that analyzes sex-ed materials that have been used in 82 public school districts.

The American Civil Liberties Union of California today announced its endorsement of Proposition 30, the Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act. 

In response to the findings issued today by the blue-ribbon Citizen’s Commission on Jail Violence, Peter Eliasberg, director of the Jails Project of the ACLU of Southern California, issued the following statement:

A federal judge ruled today that a regular speaker at meetings of the Orange County Board of Supervisors cannot challenge a rule restricting critical and derogatory speech by public speakers at open and public board meetings.

In response to a threat by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca to ignore a proposed state law that would limit when local law enforcement must detain illegal immigrant arrestees (“Sheriff Baca may defy proposed law easing immigration enforcement,” Los Angeles Times, August 25), ACLU of Southern California Executive Director Hector Villagra issued the following statement: