Costa Mesa Backs Off

Within days of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, MALDEF and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, on March 2, 2010 the City of Costa Mesa halted enforcement of its anti-solicitation ordinance. The suit was brought on behalf of day laborers represented by the Asociacion de Jornaleros de Costa Mesa and the Colectivo Tonantzin.

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State/LAUSD "Decimating" Teaching Staffs of 3 Schools

Massive teacher layoffs at three Los Angeles Unified School District middle schools have deprived thousands of students at Gompers, Liechty, and Markham middle schools of their legal right to an education consistent with prevailing statewide standards, a team of civil rights attorneys said in a class-action lawsuit filed Feb. 24, 2010.

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Pictured: Concepciona Manuel-Flores, 7th grader, Markham middle school.

Ramona Ripston Announces Retirement

ACLU/SC Executive Director Ramona Ripston, for decades one of the region’s most respected and outspoken voices on civil rights and civil liberties issues ranging from education and police reform to privacy, freedom of speech, and the rights of immigrants and homeless people, announced today that she will step down from the post she has held for 38 years.

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