Top Stories From the ACLU of Southern California

First of Its Kind Suit Heads Back to the 9th Circuit

The 9th Circuit’s decision to rehear our case addressing the religious liberty of a Muslim woman forced by Orange County Sheriff’s Department officials to remove her headscarf in front of strangers is a most welcome development.

We seemingly lost the case back in May, when a panel from this very same appellate court ruled, by a 2-1 vote, that the courthouse holding facility where our client was held did not meet the standard as defined by the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

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Sep 17, 2010 |  permalink

Somalia Refugees Added to ACLU/SC Suit Seeking Timely Release Hearings for Detained Immigrants

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has added refugees from Somalia and U.S. residents from El Salvador and Mexico to its class action lawsuit in federal court challenging the U.S. government’s right to detain immigrants indefinitely while they await the outcome of immigration proceedings.

The U.S. immigration detention system has become a national disgrace. Nowhere else do we imprison people for so long – often for years -- without lawyers or even hearings to determine if imprisonment is really necessary. This broken system inflicts a heavy cost not just to the detainees who languish in the system, but also to their families, and ultimately to the American taxpayer, who has to pay for the cost of imprisoning thousands of people for no reason.

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Sep 14, 2010 |  permalink

Pay to Learn: One Family Discusses the Not-So-Hidden Cost of Public Eduation

To access closed captioning, please start video.

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Sep 11, 2010 |  permalink

ACLU/SC Sues California for Allowing Public Schools to Charge Students Fees

Free public schools are the linchpin of our democracy, the constitutionally ordained mechanism by which the American dream is made accessible to all children regardless of class or social status. But in California, for thousands and thousands of children, the state imposes a cover charge and minimum on the American dream, because the public schools are not free or open to all on equal terms.

Today the ACLU of Southern California, along with the law firm of Morrison and Foerster and the ACLU of Northern California and San Diego and Imperial Counties, filed a statewide class action civil rights suit to enjoin the imposition of student fees for courses for academic credit. As early as 1879, the California Constitution was amended to ensure the creation and maintenance of a system of free schools. And as our Supreme Court stated in 1984, “This provision—[the free schools clause]—entitles the youth of the state . . . to be educated at the public expense.”

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Sep 10, 2010 |  permalink

Retaliation, Abuse, Continues to Plague L.A. County Jail

An excerpt from the latest disturbing findings:

One prisoner reported being attacked by a group of about 10 deputies, unprovoked, on the way back to his cell from church. The deputies punched and kicked him so hard he sustained several broken ribs, a swollen artery in the brain, and a fractured nose. Another prisoner reported being severely beaten up by a group of deputies for having his shirt untucked and asking for a new pair of shoes. Yet another prisoner, a disabled man suffering from a torn ligament in his knee, reported being attacked by three deputies after he had asking to be assigned to a bottom bunk, at his doctor's recommendation.

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Sep 9, 2010 |  permalink

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."

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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