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:

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.