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:

Our 49th Annual Garden Party is just around the corner, so buy your tickets today! You’ll be able to check out local ACLU chapters from all across Southern California, laugh with host “actorvist” Esai Morales, eat delicious food, bid on signed political cartoons at our live auction, schmooze with activists, and come together to support the ACLU.

Today parents and physicians sued the Clovis Unified School District over its high school abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education. The lawsuit charges that the district is violating California law and putting teens’ health at risk by teaching students misinformation and denying them critical instruction about condoms and contraception.

A coalition of prominent civil rights, housing, and domestic violence groups is urging the San Jacinto City Council to reject a proposed nuisance abatement ordinance that would have a devastating effect on some of the city’s neediest residents. The ACLU of Southern California, National Housing Law Project, Western Center on Law & Poverty, California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, and Alternatives to Domestic Violence have sent the city council a letter of opposition as the council prepares to vote on the law at its Tuesday, August 21 meeting.

Major civil rights organizations have reached a settlement agreement with the Dinuba Unified School District (DUSD) to ensure that young English learners have an equal chance to succeed. The agreement, which was finalized at a school board meeting last week, comes as the result of a lawsuit filed in May by Dinuba parents and teachers. The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU of Southern California, the ACLU of Northern California, the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc., the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), and the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Today, attorneys representing American Muslims responded to a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney granting a Department of Justice request to dismiss their civil rights lawsuit against the FBI.  Although the Court’s ruling dismissed the lawsuit against the FBI, it permits the suit to go forward against the individual government agents under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Imane Boudlal, former employee of the Storytellers Café at Disney’s California Adventure, filed suit today in federal court against the company for harassment and religious discrimination because she is a North African Arab and a Muslim.