Top Stories From the ACLU of Southern California

Worker Exploitation Suit Against Federal Contractor Terra Universal, Inc.

On August 31, the ACLU of Southern California and its coalition partners filed suit against Terra Universal, Inc., charging the multi-million dollar federal government contractor with violations of federal wage and hour laws for requiring employees to work long hours without overtime pay and systematically discriminating against Latino workers based on their race and immigration status.

Terra Universal routinely required its largely immigrant workforce – documented and undocumented alike – to work overtime hours without overtime pay. To evade government scrutiny, it created a fraudulent time system, requiring workers to clock out at the end of an 8-hour workshift and clock back in as a “second job.” Workers who complained about workplace issues or who suffered injuries were fired, had their pay deducted or their hours reduced and were verbally abused.

“Our employment laws provide everyone equal workplace rights regardless of what country you came from, how you got here and your immigration status,” said Jennie Pasquarella, ACLU/SC staff attorney. "A fair day's pay for a fair day's work is a basic American rule, with no exceptions."

Read more.

Pictured: Hugo Alncantar, a six-year Terra Universal employee.

Aug 31, 2010 |  permalink

ACLU/SC School Fees Investigation Featured on Public Radio Documentary

The crippling impact on public education of California's recent state budget cuts is the subject of an in-depth documentary on public radio station KCLU from Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. K-12: On The Edge provides one of the clearest and most accessible explanations of why California's public education system, once the envy of the nation, is currently in crisis. The program provides valuable insight into why the state's public schools are failing to serve large numbers of students, particularly low-income and students of color.

ACLU/SC staff attorney David Sapp is heard on K-12: On the Edge discussing our investigation of the widespread public school district practice of charging fees to students to participate in educational programming, despite a 1984 California Supreme Court decision, Hartzell v. Connell, that clearly states such fees violate the California state constitution's guarantee of a free public education.

The radio documentary provides an important context for this practice as a symptom of the broader dysfunction of California's finance and governance system for public education. With an ever-shrinking allocation of funding from the state - an annual drop of almost $1,500 per student, according to the documentary - and restrictions on how they can use much of the state funding they do receive, school districts are clearly in a financial bind. They view fees - though clearly illegal - as a way to offer the educational programming that California's citizenry have a right to expect the public schools to provide.

The documentary will be rebroadcast on Saturday, August 28, 2010, at 1:00 pm on KCLU livestream and is currently available as a podcast.

Information about the ACLU/SC's efforts to combat the unequal impact the state's budget cuts have had on students at the state's lowest performing schools is available here. Information about efforts to ensure that all students have access to adequate facilities and textbooks is available here

Aug 27, 2010 |  permalink

ACLU/SC Denounces Proposed use of "Inhumane" Heat Ray Device against Inmates

Recently, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department announced its intention to begin using an “Assault Intervention Device” that fires an invisible heat beam capable of causing unbearable pain on inmates at the Pitchess Detention Center‟s North County Correctional Facility.

On August 26, the ACLU of Southern California and the ACLU National Prison Project sent a letter to Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca demanding that he not employ this high-technology device, built for the military, against prisoners at the Los Angeles County jails.

The ACLU letter highlights the fact that the military incarnation of the device was briefly fielded in Afghanistan in June and then withdrawn in July without ever being used. While the device was being tested by the Air Force, a miscalibration of the device's power settings caused five airmen in its path to suffer lasting burns, including one whose injuries were so severe that he was airlifted to an off-base burn treatment center.

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Aug 26, 2010 |  permalink

Time to Come Clean about Detention & Torture of Former Hawthorne Man

Since shortly after Naji Hamdan, an American citizen, was arrested and held incommunicado in the United Arab Emirates in 2008, the ACLU of Southern California has been working to obtain the truth about why the U.A.E. held, tortured, and charged Mr. Hamdan as part of the U.S.'s controversial "proxy detention" program.

Proxy detention is the practice of the U.S. government using foreign allies to detain and interrogate terror suspects. The ACLU believes Mr. Hamdan is one of hundreds of people whom the United Nations and human rights organizations estimate the U.S. has subjected to this practice. Under proxy detention, the U.S. can subject individuals to indefinite detention, interrogation, and torture without accountability.

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Aug 18, 2010 |  permalink

Anchoring the Constitution

Mark Rosenbaum, senior counsel for the ACLU of Southern California, has a few choice words for those attacking the 14th Amendment of the Constitution in the name of political expediency:

"The truth is that the most fundamental purpose of the 14th Amendment was to correct the injustice that slaves and their children both were regarded as outside the notion of citizenship. The genius of Lincoln — and it’s really the greatest historical legacy of the Republican Party — is that all individuals were to be treated based on who they are, not who their parents were.

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Aug 13, 2010 |  permalink

Marriage Equality Wins, But There's A Long Road Ahead

Prop. 8 violates the U.S. Constitution, a U.S. District Court ruled Wednesday.

“We rejoice at this decision, but it’s a long road ahead until final victory,” said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California. “This decision affirms that in America we don’t treat people differently based on their sexual orientation.”

Download a pdf of the ruling here. (Large file. Download speed will vary.)

Aug 4, 2010 |  permalink

Fighting to Protect Immigrants with Mental Disabilities

The nation’s first class action lawsuit on behalf of immigrant detainees with severe mental disabilities – detainees who are left defenseless in a system they cannot comprehend – was filed late Monday by a coalition of legal organizations led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Public Counsel, and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.

“Our Constitution and our laws demand fair treatment for people with severe mental disabilities,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, director of immigrants’ rights and national security for the ACLU/SC. “If someone cannot undertstand the proceedings against them, due process requires that they be given a lawyer to help them.”

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Aug 2, 2010 |  permalink

Corruption and Abuse by L.A. County Deputies Contribute to Suicide, Report Confirms

John Horton was held in solitary confinement in the Los Angeles County Men‘s Central Jail following his arrest for drug possession. He committed suicide.

In the days leading up to his death in March 2009, jail staff noted that Mr. Horton was despondent. His cell was a dimly-lit, windowless, solid-front box the size of a closet. His body was already stiff by the time security staff discovered him hanging from a noose in his cell, with his hands bound – one of eight successful apparent suicides in the L.A. County jails in the past calendar year.

Margaret Winter, ACLU National Prison Project

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Jul 29, 2010 |  permalink

ACLU/SC Seeks Records About FBI Collection of Racial And Ethnic Data

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California today asked the FBI to turn over records related to the agency‟s collection and use of race and ethnicity data in Southern California communities.

The request is one of 30 coordinated Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by ACLU affiliates in states and the District of Columbia seeking to uncover records from the FBI field offices related to the “mapping” of ethnic communities in the U.S.

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Jul 27, 2010 |  permalink

An Open Letter to Lindsay Lohan from the ACLU

Dear Lindsay,

We know that going to jail is scary. But we can assure you that your experience at the women’s facility in Lynwood, outside Los Angeles, is likely to be starkly different from the thousands of others serving time and awaiting trial in the Los Angeles jails. Based on the ACLU’s decades of experience as an official court-appointed monitor of the jails, and the stories of countless women with whom we’ve spoken, the facility where you are staying is an overcrowded detention facility where women are needlessly humiliated for so long that they come to expect sub-human treatment.

Read more.

Jul 26, 2010 |  permalink