Hexas Civil Liberties Reporter The Bi'Monthly Publication of the Civil Liberties Union

SEPT./OCT. 1986 AUSTIN,TEXAS

New Director Named TCLU Blasts Austin INS Raid For South Texas by Julia Fitzgerald It was 6:13 a.m. on June 6 when the Project INS men boarded the Austin city bus and asked Gerato Hernandez where he was A new director has been named for the from. Hernandez, who was bom in the South Texas Project as the Project's focus , refused to answer. But he has been expanded to deal with immigra looked at his watch to check the time. tion-related issues as well as traditional He was already planning to complain Project concerns involving the rights of about this blatant violation of his rights. farmworkers in the Rio Grande Valley. The INS agents made their way down The new director is Carter "Gappy" the aisle of the bus, stopping to interro White, an attorney who most recently X. gate each Hispanic male. Anyone who served as a law clerk to Texas Third Court answered in Spanish or could not provide of Appeals Judge Robert Gammage and documentation was led to a waiting INS

as an aide to State Senator Gonzalo van. Barrientos. White began work in the San For over an hour at an intersection in Juan office of the Project on September the largely Hispanic neighborhood of East 1. INS Agent questions an East Austin Austin INS agents boarded buses and The South Texas Project, also known resident. See INS Raid, p. 6 as Oficina Legal del Pueblo Unido, was founded by the ACLU in the early 1970's Time To Return To Our Activist Roots to deal with the extraordinary plight of Valley migrant farmworkers. Tens of by Gara LaMarche thousands of them — more than one It's abundantly clear that the federal courts, long our most important ally in the quarter of the migrants in the country — struggle to affirm individual rights against encroachments by the state, are increasingly lived without even access to drinking closing their doors to civil liberties claims, and may continue that way for the next water. Incipient efforts to organize the generation. Yet I'm feeling more optimistic than 1 have in a long time about the workers — the vast majority of whom were prospects for civil liberties. 1 realize this bears further explanation. Mexican-American — were met with The new court term is almost certain to begin with William Rehnquist as Chief Justice brutal resistance by local government and and Antonin Scalia an almost certain ally for a crabbed reading of the Constitution powerful growers. which tips the scales of justice against individual liberty, with a heavy thumb on the In short, South Texas of the early state's side of the scale. The entire federal judiciary is moving in the same direction I970's was a cross between Marian — by 1988, half of the district and appeals court judges will owe their appointments County and Jersey City of the 1930's. to Ronald Reagan and Edwin Meese. Few situations in the 20th century So what's the good news? It's that these cataclysmic changes give us two choices. American rights struggle cried out so One is to pull into our shells and wait for better days, when the judicial climate powerfully for legal challenge. The South is more to our liking. The other is to renew our activist roots, in order to revitalize Texas Project became the vehicle for that public awareness of, and support for, the principles of the Bill of Rights. Former challenge. In its early years, under the Federal Judge Marvin Frankel recently had some important things to say about this. leadership first of David Hall, now In a talk to ACLU members in Westchester County, N.Y., Judge Frankel touched director of Texas Rural Legal Aid, and on some unsettling truths when he said: then of James C. Harrington, now the "Instead of being astonished that our beliefs are rejected by a great majority of TCLU legal director, the Project won a our fellow citizens, we act as if such an attitude were inevitable. At most our response See South Texas, p. 6 See Renewing Our Roots, p. 2 SEPT./OCT. 1986 PAGE 2 Texas Civil Liberties Reporter SEPT./OCT. 1986 Texas Civil Liberties Reporter PAGE 3 TCLU Ponders Options in Farmworkers Win Renewing Our Activist Roots continued from p. I Joan Glantz 1942 — 1986 to the hostility so many Americans express toward the charter of their and our Wake of Sodomy Law Setback Texas Supreme by Julia Fitzgerald liberties is a wry chuckle .. . reflect(ing) an attitude too common among us that The TCLU and gay rights groups are may fairly be condemned as condescending. The TCLU was disgusted but not now considering various strategies for the Court Victory surprised by the Supreme Court sodomy "Too many of us resign ourselves too much of the time to the idea that we will overturning of the Texas sodomy law. Farm workers in Texas won a signifi ruling this summer. In Bowers v. Hardwick One alternative is to seek repeal in the cant victory in the Texas Supreme Court always be a minority. We tend to take pleasure in the fact that the Bill of Rights the Court upheld a Georgia statute is an anti-majoritarian document. Technically, of course, it is. The great constitutional 1987 Legislature. Another is to challenge when the court ordered Country Court prohibiting various forms of consensual the law in state court under the Texas No. 3 of Hidalgo County to require rights are truly protections against majority pressures and majority power. The rights sex between members of the opposite sex to free expression, freedom of religion and the due process of law are not subject Constitution, which may be inclined to western Hidalgo County's largest grower, as well as between homosexuals. to modification or repeal by majority vote. interpret individual rights more Bannworths, Inc., to reinstate Mrs. Maria In a short but frightening majority expansively than an increasingly "But it isn't enough to say that the Bill of Rights is so great and secure that Guadalupe Vasquez to her former employ opinion Justice White dismissed as irrele we can count on unelected judges to preserve it. As we're seeing now, and have Reaganized federal judiciary. ment with the company. vant twenty years of Supreme Court seen before, the judiciary may not always be a dependable resource. But even if Bannworths had fired Mrs. Vasquez in privacy rulings and focused instead on the judges were more predictably in our comer, it would be a mistake to rely almost long history of sodomy laws and "majority TCLU Opposes 1982 for reporting the company to the exclusively on the courts." state health department for not providing sentiments about the morality of homo Abortion Regulations Frankel's speech (adapted as an article in the July 5/12 issue of The Nation) is Longtime TClU activist Joan Garfinkel sexuality." toilets to field workers. a challenge to the comfortable assumptions of many civil libertarians. Those of us Glantz died on August 27 in after Proposed amendments to the Texas a long and gallant battle with cancer. "We're lucky that kind of reasoning The TCLU represented her in a who grew up in the Warren Era tend to have the mindset that rights are something Department of Health regulations govern successful jury trial in which she was you get from courts, when in fact that has been the case for a relatively brief window Glantz was for ten years co-director (with wasn't used by the Supreme Court in ing licensing of abortion clinics would Dassia Porper) of the TCLU Greater awarded $3,000 in lost wages. However, of opportunity in American history. In search of our activist origins, 1 recently took Brown v. Board of Education, which might unduly burden the constitutional right to Houston Chapter; for fifteen years a member then have sanctioned segregation on the even though the jury found that she was a look at the first annual report of the ACLU, published in 1921, and found a of the TCLU State Board of Directors; for freedom of reproductive choice, according basis of centuries of traditional subjuga fired because of anti-union motivation section, probably written by Roger Baldwin, on "How to Get Civil Liberty." It five years (1980-85) the TCLU President; TCLU testimony before Health De tion of blacks," points out TCLU Execu and that the company would not rehire barely mentions the courts, but asserts; and for ten years (1974-84) a member of the partment hearing officers in July. national ACLU Board of Directors. She was tive Director Gara LaMarche. her in the future, the judge refused to "We realize that these standards of civil liberty cannot be maintained as abstract the first woman to serve in these latter two TCLU Legal Director Jim Harrington Authority for the Health Department reinstate her. principles or as constitutional guarantees. Economic or political power is necessary to regulate abortion clinics to protect the positions. In 1985 she was elected to the also criticized the Court "for deciding to to assert and maintain all 'rights.' In the midst of any conflict they are not granted planning committee for the ACLU's 1987 health and safety of women was provided The Supreme Court ruled that Garcia use the Hardwick case as a vehicle to halt by the side holding the economic and political power, except as they may be forced Biennial Conference. in a bill approved by the State Legislature had abused his discretion and ordered that all furthet development of the fundamen by the strength of the opposition . . . only by such an aggressive policy of insistence Joan Glantz designated the TCLU and last spring. The bill was backed by the she be reinstated. tal rights under the constitution. For that can rights be secured and maintained." its Greater Houston Chapter as recipients TCLU and a broad coalition of pro-choice TCLU Legal Director Jim Harrington, of memorial gifts. The TCLU will use such reason alone, the decision is a devastating groups, and the initial Health Department who tried the jury case and argued the Indeed, there are plenty of signs which suggest that, even on the most controversial contributions to set up a Joan Glantz Intern reversal of American constitutional juris Supreme Court case, hailed the court issues, like pomography and crime, the American people are more supportive of civil ship Program for non- civil liberties prudence." guidelines posed no constitutional prob activists. For more information on the pro lems. victory as "a significant step along the liberties positions than we generally give them credit for. A recent CBS News/New The Hardwick ruling has particular York Times poll found a majority for the proposition that, far from going "too far in gram, and to make a contribution to this road to equal treatment and justice for fund, contact Gara LaMarche at the TCLU significance for Texas since the Court also Proposed revisions published in June, protecting the rights of people accused of crimes," the Supreme Court has "generally the farm workers of the state. It also State Office. had before it a challenge to the constitu however, would prohibit the solicitation done what is necessary to see that the accused are treated fairly." And what about of referrals to abortion facilities, bar provides the workers with a strong tionality of our sodomy law. After ruling backing for their efforts to bring about the whopping margin — 71 to 29 percent — by which Maine voters beat back a in Hardwick, the Court upheld the Fifth clinics from administering general anes fundamentalist-backed pomography referendum? humane working conditions in the fields. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to thesia, and require the posting of notices It is shameful that, in 1986, we still see The strength and vitality of civil liberties for many years to come depends on Texas Civil Liberties Reporter reinstate the law against homosexual informing clinic patrons of how to voice complaints about service to the Health agri-businesses so callous that they refuse the choices civil libertarians make at this critical juncture in our history. We can't Texas Civil Liberties Union sodomy. abandon the federal courts entirely, and there is reason to hope that they will continue Department. to provide field toilets for the workers." 1611 East First Street Neither the Texas law or similar laws to rebuff the more outrageous attempts by the Reagan Administration to overrule Executive Director Gara La longstanding precedent on behalf of the radical right's agenda. We must certainly Austin, Texas 78702-4455 around the country are likely to be Marche told the hearing officers that in Law Students continue to use the altemative forum of the state courts, where the TCLU's docket (512) 477-5849 enforced but they will serve to confer light of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent second-class citizenship upon homosexu amply demonstrates the possibilities of achieving striking victories for liberty. But Rodric B. Schoen reaffirmation of abortion rights in T/iom- Recognize TCLU als. According to LaMarche, "The main the challenge of the coming years is not primarily a lawyering challenge. President burgh V. American College of Obs. and The Chicano Law Students Associa practical effect of the sodomy ruling is tion of the University of Texas School It won't be easy, but we must try — and can often succeed — in winning public • Gyn., any regulation of abortion must be support for the principles we believe in. We have been able to block most of the to place an enormous obstacle in the path closely scrutinized to make certain it does of Law recently presented an award to Gara LaMarche of efforts to end continuing discrimina Reagan rights agenda in Congress — not to mention the "trickle-down" effects of not burden the exercise of constitutional the TCLU "in recognition of its participa the Reagan program in Texas and in other state legislatures — and are within striking Executive Director tion against gays in housing, employment, rights. He urged elimination of the tion in the East Austin Legal Clinic and distance of some affirmative victories in the personal privacy area. It is time to James C. Harrington education and other aspects of participa solicitation ban and pointed out that the service to the community." TCLU Legal Legal Director tion in the community." Contrary to Director Jim Harrington has played a re-acquaint ourselves with our activist origins and hone the advocacy and organizing claims by supporters of the ruling, the prohibition on general anesthesia would skills that will be crucial to us in the coming period. Susan Bash require many women to have abortions major role in organizing the clinic, in ruling will have only a negative effect on which volunteer devote one By now you should have received, under separate cover, an invitation to attend Assistant to the Director efforts to stem the AIDS crisis, since it in hospitals at much greater expense. A complaint procedure which applied to all evening a week to helping low-income our Statewide Activists Conference in Dallas on September 27, which has been called Para Sloan will discourage people from being tested residents of Austin's east side with legal for precisely this purpose. I hope to see you there. Legal Assistant or treated for the disease. See Abortion, p. 5 problems. SEPT./OCT. 1986 PACE 5 PAGE 4 Texas Civil Liberties Reporter SEPT./OCT. 1986 Texas Civil Liberties Reporter OPINION ACLU People Donna Mobley Let's Keep on Electing State Judges Susan Bash and Fara Sloan Named to Staff by James C. Harrington Centex Chapter There has been a good deal of discussion lately about Nor will appointing jurists remove contributions from judicial Keep the TCLU Running elections; it will merely relocate it. Instead of contributing abolishing judicial elections. Much of it comes from judges. TCLU Executive Director Cara La- Fara Sloan came to work for the TCLU The TCLU's Central Texas Chapter, directly to judges' races, donors will simply give to the Marche and Legal Director Jim Harring in late 1983 as the organization's first full- covering a fourteen-county chapter in It's not that their arguments lack merit. After all, in recent Governor's campaign, and ask later for consideration of their time legal assistant. She handles all the cluding the state capitol in Austin, has years the voters have seemed to delight in drastic judicial special judicial candidates. That's what happens in the Federal ton may get their names in the newspa turnover. And the rush of PAC money is as unnerving as it pers a lot, but the fight for civil liberties typing for the TCLU's full legal docket hired its first part-time Chapter Coordina system. is unseemly. Not to mention the "shakedown" we attorneys owes at least as much to two less well- as virtuoso of the TCLU's overworked tor, Donna Mobley. Another issue is whether elections should be partisan. sometimes experience as voting day approaches. known TCLU staff members, Susan Bash word processor, not to mention the And not a moment too soon. Within But what is alarming is the hurry to condemn the current Being a Democrat or Republican does mean something in and Fara Sloan. prolific correspondence and writing of the days of Mobley's appointment, she and system and some of the underlying assumptions at work. Texas; it expresses a view of society and government. We kid Susan Bash joined the TCLU staff as Legal Director. the chapter's board had to deal with the ourselves if we think judges can be, or should be, non-partisan. assistant to the director in January 1985. following problems: Let's deal with the assumptions first. The Texas judiciary, "Fara is always there when the crunch (Being partisan does not mean being unfair, any more than She manages the TCLU office, oversees by and large, is better than it has ever been. To be sure, it comes, and she handles the job deftly and • the County Attorney's threat, fol being non-partisan guarantees fairness. And Ed Meese has shown membership recruitment activities, and has serious problems; but there is no basis to even suggest that how well the executive can manipulate the appointive method calmly. She's hard-working and totally lowing protests from a local "decency" supervises volunteers among her myriad elections have brought about a less competent Bench. to undermine our civil liberties.) dependable," states Jim Harrington. group, to prosecute the managers of the Secondly, should we accept the premise that judges ought duties. She also attends to the executive "That's all great, but the real plus is that Dohie Theater for showing "Salo," a 1975 The answer to some of the concerns about continuity (and director's voluminous correspondence and to be above the electoral process? Is serving on the Supreme Fara's always pleasant and cheerful — no anti-fascist film by the Italian director Pier I advance this hesitantly) is to lengthen the term of a judge writings. "She always says that when I Court any more sacred a constitutional duty than being matter how had the crisis." Paolo Pasolini; (maybe to six years, or even eight), as we do for the state's open my mouth, memos come out," Governor? And why should not judges be routinely subjected highest appellate courts. • UT-Austin's repeated arrests of anti- to election by the voters — even if we're in a "throw the remarked Cara LaMarche. "But without Sloan learned her word-processing skills apartheid protesters using the campus Finally is the issue of knowing who to elect in large areas her, I would be virtually mute — which rascals out" mood? during a stint in the U.S. Army, and she where the ballot is filled with candidates. The answer is simple. West Mall; would please a lot of our enemies and still devotes occasional weekends to the When our constitution was drafted in 1875, the framers How about electing judges by districts, like we do for county • the revelation that the Austin Police probably more of my friends than I would Army Reserve. Both Bash and Sloan wanted public accountability, especially in the district courts. commissioners or city council members? Alternatively, there Department has operated a computer like to think." spend much time trying to help the many They intended to make sure that a governor would never again could be two or three judges per district. bulletin board "sting" operation. have the extensive power of appointment that was so abused Bash, who with her husband Frank, a callers from around the state who seek Keeping the elected state judiciary along with the appointed by Governor Edmund Davis. U.T. astronomy professor and former the TCLU's assistance with civil liberties Mobley, a longtime ACLU member, is federal bench gives us the hest of both worlds. Why should member of the TCLU Central Texas problems. especially well-qualified to direct the work And are the alternatives really any better? The most touted we so easily surrender it? of the Central Texas Chapter. She was are versions used in Missouri and California, which essentially Chapter Board, has been a longtime So, in the long run, I would rather have a judge elected ACLU member, attributes her interest in "I think it is very important that a per Executive Director of Texas Common involve a "blue ribbon" panel selecting a few nominees, with civil liberties to the influence of her late son enjoy what they do," says Sloan. "I the governor making the ultimate choice. by the people in a knock-down, drag-out political contest than Cause from 1979 to 1981 and has also one appointed for me from on high. Isn't that what democracy father, an Episcopalian minister. "When love my work and I enjoy working with the served as director of a special legislative Frankly, "blue ribbon" panels always end up as elitist I was growing up in Ohio, I remember entire staff. I especially enjoy working for committee to revise the state's ethics is all about? ventures, with a few stodgy folks, truly unrepresentative of many times when he came to the defense Jim. Jim is such an active person that laws. Within a few weeks of taking office, the total community. We see what that means in the key of condemned persons, and victims of sometimes it is really hard to keep up with she put out a chapter newsletter and man" grand jury selection process — an unconscionable lack James C. Hanm^on :s Legal Director of the Texas CM Liberties McCarthyism," Bash recalls. "It had a all the work he produces, but I love the helped organize two events: the first in of women, minorities, young people, and the non-affluent. Umon. His vtem here are his own and not those of the TCLU. strong effect on me." challenge." a series of chapter lunchtime meetings, Reagan uncannily proved this argument recently when he rro position on the election of judges featuring a talk by Professor Sam Walker nominated another Anglo male to the Supreme Court, passing of the University of Nebraska; and a up the historical opportunity of naming a woman as the Chief . si \ d fundraising party at the home of Ed and Justice and appointing perhaps a minority person, maybe the the good old days Alice Sherman of Austin. The party first Hispanic. honored area civil libertarians John Henry Besides, the highly praised Missouri system is now mired in Will M ^ ^941 Faulk, Dorothy Browne, Margaret Walker the very scandals which everyone said couldn't happen; and period of debrt'L^T"^ During the and Robert Dawson. the overall legal caliber of that court system is mediocre at Morris, editor of^rh best. wrote and n hf u! Texas Daily Texan, Abortion .. . And, the California supreme court, which enjoys one of the 'legislation.' itionn- TbTheVe ' rnlVuniversity 'T''^ Rncr4 attacking.f d the.A.red proposed the continued from p. 3 best reputations in the country, today faces wholesale unelection editor to cease di. Regents ordered health facilities — dentists' and optjme- There, the PACS have lined up to knock off the justices who Is^ue,issue and nrpressure ^^^^lonu of this intensely controversi trists' offices, for example — would not must face the voters in a retention election. In fact, California ^The e, edit andor pressure a RK wacK.„.._i_. ,. . ^ his ^'ndpo®"^' shows that the retention method may be more susceptible be objectionable, but singling out abor ■ to PAC tan blank - Scholar-elect, refused to tesig" ^ tion providers — especially in the current money,, ,. and voter caprice.■ , After all, it would be- easier (and prob censoredcensnrod A T 'Indicating'"^^'^^^ting that an editorial had -e climate of violence and intimidation ably tairer) to run against an opponent than against yourself. A in which th""^ ^^P^i'son who disapproved of the mad against clinics — would raise serious judge who is the only one on the ballot will ha\ fhe natural gas law was suDDorted, if Susan Bash Fara Sloan to deal with I CmL^_ constitutional issues. single-issue voters upset over a particular its substpn '""-nral gas law was supported, i who case. vetoed rb President of the United States Congress, SEPT./OCT. 1986 Texas Civil Liberties Reporter PAUt 7 PAGE 6 Texas Civil Liberties Reporter SEPT./OCT. 1986 New Director for South Texas Project ... TCLU Briefs continued from p. I CONTEST! number of striking victories which IN TOUGH TIMES, YOU LEARN lar activities. A similar plan is under writing in the April 18 issue of The Texas bettered the lives of Valley farmworkers Which 19th century historical figure WHO YOUR REAL FRIENDS ARE consideration in the central Texas com Observer, "three police chiefs from (other — bringing drinking water to rural said the following: munity of Pflugerville, and is apparently cities in) the Panhandle stated that civil colonias, curbing widespread police bru From Molly Ivins' July 17 Dallas Times underway in Longview and Belton. While rights litigation against lawmen can tality against farmworker organizers, and Herald column, about the legal plight of the legality of drug tests for private upgrade the quality of law enforcement. ending the exclusion of the predomi "... far better to endure and suffer seven fundamentalists jailed for contempt employees has not been addressed by the 'I'd say it's good,' said Perryton Police nantly Chicano population from grand from the ills of even a great evil than to of court when they refused, on religious courts, judges in East Rutherford, New Chief Joe Hannon. 'Yes, I'd have to be violate, in the least, a vital principle of civil grounds, to stand for a judge s entrance Jersey and Arkadelphia, Arkansas have a fool not to. It wakes you up, puts you juries and from access to governmental and religious liberty. When a government benefit programs. into the courtroom: struck down student testing schemes in the 20th Century.' Litigation against like ours undertakes to declare certain acts "While they were in the county challenged by the ACLU. The TCLU is police departments has 'sparked police The project is poised, now under the "of individuals unlawful, that a considerable auspices of the Texas Civil Liberties hoosegow last summer, these seven likely to mount a legal attack on any professionalism,' said Pampa Police Chief portion thereof honestly believe in, it is an student drug tests instituted in Texas. Union Foundation, to meet new chal menaces to the public safety wrote a writ J. J. Ryzman, a 20-year veteran of police abridgment of their inalienable rights, it to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which lenges in the Rio Grande Valley. In cannot be enforced, and is calculated to addition to its traditional focus on First then ordered them released until they lessen the respect for the laws of their coun could have a hearing. On June 11 of this Amendment and police brutality issues Cappy White try ... To undertake to prescribe rules of year, the court, in a 5-4 decision, affirmed involving farmworker activists, the deportation proceedings; conditct for others... by legislative enact the Beaumont judge's decision, so the Project will seek to; • take on second-generation voting ments, is a species of legislation that will seven now are due to complete their • ensure the successful implementation rights challenges, such as systematic .not be tolerated in a free land." sentences. The dissenters in the case were intimidation of minority voters and of recent legislation including farmwork Sam Houston Clinton, Charles Campbell, obstacles to effective absentee voting by ers in workers and unemployment com Chuck Miller and Marvin Teague. Rietta migrants. The first person to write us with the cor pensation programs, and bring new cases Rose, daughter of two of the defendants, TCLU Executive Director Gara La- rect answer will get their choice as a prize involving exclusions from OSHA enforce said, 'The four liberals were on our side! Marche stated, "We want to continue a of either a Texas Sesquicentennial Tote ment, pesticide regulation and minimum And here the supposedly conservative,, wage laws; vigorous ACLU presence in the Rio Bag or a Texas Sesquicentennial Pocket Knife. The correct answer, along with the religious ones ruled against us. My father • expand its role in immigration- Grande Valley. The South Texas Project name of the winner and honorable men is patriotic, and he tries to be as moral related matters — in which the Valley focuses sustained litigation resources on the civil liberties of poor people and tions, will be published in the and as upstanding and live by the Bible has become a major center — particularly as much as he can.' She also was with respect to due process issues such minorities, and we need to redouble our November/December issue of Texas Civil efforts in these struggles." Liberties Reporter. astounded to learn that the Texas Civil YUPPIES mPEOPVE mm POUlTKmON as bail and right to counsel in asylum and Liberties Union is willing to help. of over 700 undocumented workers. detaining someone as a suspected illegal "What I find sad and astonishing about this case is the clear assumption on the INS Raid .. . Geraro Hernandez was only one of a ahen. This sort of broad sweep is only THANKS, 1 NEEDED THAT work. Tulia Police Chief Tom Rolen said part of the defendants that 'liberal judges' continued from p. 1 number of irate citizens, Hispanic and allowed within what is considered the Some people say that law enforcement the recent increase in police misconduct Anglo, who contacted the TCLU to functional equivalent" of the border 100 and the American Civil Liberties Union and respect for civil liberties are opposite suits has 'had a positive effect because flagged down cars. According to TCLU protest the roadblocks. Local politicians miles from the actual border. Austin is Would be against them. Beloveds, the Bill goals. The ACLU says that respect for it s made us fully aware of where our Legal Director ]im Harrington, who also received a number of complaints. Z50 miles from the Rio Grande. of Rights is for everybody. True, U.S. the law is eroded when public officials weaknesses in training and personnel witnessed the raid and took videotapes, State Representative Lena Guerrero de INS officials defended their actions, Attorney General Edwin Meese once violate their public trust by abridging are.'" "Agents entered city buses, hauling nounced the "Gestapo-like" tactics of the called the ACLU a 'criminals' lobby,' but citizens' constitutional rights. SOMETIMES THEY FLINCH BE people from the buses, and yanked people maintaining that they were not stopping that reflects more on the attorney general INS and pointed out that only Hispanic people sole y on the basis of skin color, We got some support for this view FORE WE SWING from the backs of pick-up trucks. People citizens were forced to suffer these than on the ACLU. The Rev. Jerry recently from an unlikely source: three The newly active local committee of who protested, saying that their papers indignities. U.S. Representative Jake f ary ^emck, an assistant district director Falwell has said that the ACLU is led police chiefs from the Texas Panhandle TCLU members in Wichita Falls an were at the house and that they didn t torn the San Antonio office, said several by 'thugs' and that it is 'the most Pickle wrote a letter to INS commissioner criteria are used to ferret out undocu- region. In 1984, a Parmer County justice nounced in June that it would investigate carry them to work, were refused the right Alan Nelson expressing concern that the tlestructive threat to our traditional of the peace and three law officers, acting complaints from nearby Holliday involv to secure their papers and then hauled actions might violate the rights of A.merican way of life.' What is truly without the warrant required by the ing "violations of the Texas Open off to detention." clothing,r1 people,even theincluding smell of haira person." style, "Impressing is that civil liberties and civil Only cars driven by people who citizens. c ar Casillas, also from the San Constitution, kicked in the doors of Meetings Act, the Official Oppression '^ights are not very popular with the Carrie Melear and Willie Stewart, two Act, questionable public employment appeared to be Hispanics were stopped; The TCLU believes that the road ntonio office, explained, "People from American people here in this 210th year others were waved on through. Those blocks are clearly in violation of Fourth Bovina residents, and searched their practices and terroristic threats made by of our freedom. Until they find they need apartments, brandishing guns and acting city officials." stoppped were shipped to a dentention Amendment protections against unlawful • ome may be smokinghave foreign- tribal them, of course." center. By that afternoon they were on search and seizure. "The officers stopped wildly. Several chapter members, sporting their way to Mexico. and harassed citizens, Hispanics specifi fb^ ^^'S^rettes,odor of exotic or thetobacco smoke blends may emit not NO PISS, NO PLAY? Melear and Stewart sued the officials, "ACLU Observer" stickers, attended the This roadblock, along with several cally, without any cause," says Harring commonly smoked in this country." The Austin Independent School Dis- and won $127,500 in damages to compen June 26 meeting of the Holliday City others in Austin, was part of a four-day ton. He points out that the courts have "•t'ct announced that it is considering sate them for their losses and to punish Council, and three of the six council statewide INS action, "Operation Buck determined that Hispanic ancestry alone fbp ^ "^^^^rks seem almost comical, but testing high school students for drugs, the housebreakers for their illegal con members turned in their resignations on cannot be considered just cause for perhaps as a prerequisite for extracurricu- duct. According to Josh Rappaport, the spot. shot," which resulted in the deportation laughingU matter. rinderlies them is no 513b50^DY TMC A107 LAiJRENCI CRAN3ERG Non-Profit Texas Civil Liberties Repor 1235 CONSTANT SPRINGS OR Organization AUSTIN* T)( 78746 U.S. Postage 1611 East First St. PAID Austin, Texas 78702-4455 Austin, Texas Permit No. 2064

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PAGE 8 SEPT./OCT. 1986 WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT TCLR ™ '■r Jim Ha,ri„gto„'s views A few issues back we ran a form containing a TCLR reader a special insp r I* psepase survey, to find out what you think about this bimonthly publication, and what kinds of features you might like to see said vou annr • j public official. A number of you more of. Forty readers responded. Here's what we found: • We asked you to rate your impression of TCLR, and gave thoseliberties in votrng'et^ds'oJr"^^the future ^S'^lators, and we'll continue to do you five choices ranging from "highly favorable" to "highly unfavorable." 23 of you gave us the highest rating, 16 checked "generally favorable," and one expressed no opinion. No one The TCLU .THANKS! of time, funds anH without the generous donation checked the "unfavorable" listings. state. We've been es^iTaTT • We asked you what you wanted more of. The highest months, and want to tab ! these areas in recent response, from 28 readers, was for "pro and con discussions to: ^ occasion to give special thanks of current civil liberties controversies." Next were "news on current TCLU activities," and "reports on civil liberties issues • Catherine Moore ,.,k j in various regions of the state," with 22 responses each. 19 furniture and eauinme,^!- • ? ^'^^ted a virtual officeful of readers asked for more reports on TCLU litigation, and a on which this is being wrktem computer periodic listing of our case docket, and 17 expressed an interest • Diane Doegett wK/-* ^ in reading interviews with public officials. 15 of you would table for the TCLU's Ubrar ^ n^uch-needed conference like to read occasional profiles of civil liberties activists. The lower-tanked items were reprints of non-staff written articles summer in Ausuraisling tSu L n (though one respondent suggested a "for further reading list" in preparation for several Director Jim Harrington would be a good idea) and in-depth reports on particular civil of the articles in this news'lelt^'^ trials, and who wrote several liberties problems. • Larry Harrington, who k o • By a two-to-one margin (20-10), you told us that you would marketing project and who h 1 ^ t'erseemg our publications not be interested in seeing us devote more space to items on edition of TCLR to soci 1 ^ ^ j tlistribute our special student national issues or events taking place in other states. The newspaper editors; ^ teachers and high school majority of you think Civil Liberties, the ACLU national • Kathy Faber, a par I newspaper, is doing a good job in that department. research, filing, and other^nff- who's helping with legal • 13 of you would like to see more frequent — though not • Michael Siemer, a q necessarily shorter — issues of the Reporter, 18 of you think task of reorganizing the °^^tsaw the unenviable the bimonthly frequency is just fine, and 7 have no opinion provide invaluable who continues to on the subject. "vou'dlikco We appreciate the overall vote of confidence in TCLR, and one of OP, TCLU chap,!!" '"Set In Austin or in if staffing and budget permits, we may publish more frequently Bash at the state office P^ase call Susan in the future. Beginning with this issue, we'te trying to teflect a particular need for soml ^^^'5^49. In Austin, we have reader preferences by adding new features. We hope to stimulate Epson QX-10 computer ^^h programs for the