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Pdfannual Report 2013 WELCOME The national ACLU turned ninety-four this year — five hundred thousand Americans united in one cause. Since 1920, the political currents have repeatedly threatened to take — and sometimes have taken — America off course. But the ACLU’s compass has always been true, the vision always clear: to THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION IS FOUNDED make our union — these United States — more perfect by upholding constitutional rights for everyone. In 1920, the United States is awash in fear, sparking a series of raids There’s much to celebrate. This report highlights key successes from by the U.S. Department of Justice this year, while recalling some of the historic milestones that helped that target anyone suspected of THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF bring us here. being a communist and immigrants SOUTHERN CaLIFORNIA whose activism is at odds with the The ACLU struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act last year government. Thousands of individuals Three years after the national ACLU was formed, and look at how the freedom to marry has spread — for the first time, are imprisoned or deported. Their journalist Upton Sinclair helps form the ACLU of most Americans live in states where same-sex marriage is legal! civil rights and liberties trampled. Southern California (ACLU SoCal) in Los Angeles. In response, Roger Baldwin, Crystal Angered by the Los Angeles Police Department’s But even as we celebrate this advance, we must recognize the rising Eastman, Albert DeSilver, and others brutal treatment of striking dock workers in San tide against basic rights. Some states have taken the election and re- form the American Civil Liberties Pedro, Sinclair and others protest by attempting to election of a black president as a call to arms and want to prevent Union. Their goal is to defend and read the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. millions of Americans from voting. And the NSA developed a scheme secure civil rights and civil liberties Though he is arrested, Sinclair ultimately prevails for all people. Ninety-four years later and so does the ACLU SoCal, as it continues to defend of asking a secret judge, sitting on a secret court, for a warrant to that remains our mission. the individual rights and liberties of all people. spy on all American cellphone users — without any proof of criminal conduct by any of us. There’s always too much to include in a single report because the work — standing for justice, standing against the currents of the day, and taking a stand for what’s right, fair, and just — never ends. Onward! 1920 1923 Hector O. Villagra • Executive Director • ACLU of Southern California CRIMINAL JUSTICE For decades, Los Angeles County jails have been plagued by violence and abuse. Allegations of gang-like cliques of deputies surfaced repeatedly as did reports of deputy-on-inmate violence and mistreatment of individuals with mental illness. But that’s finally changing. In January 2014, Sheriff Lee Baca stepped down following a multi-year effort by the ACLU SoCal to force Baca to clean up the county’s jails. Having chronicled eyewitness accounts of deputies who fractured legs, skulls, and eye sockets of inmates as part of our 2011 jail report, the ACLU SoCal then sued Baca in 2012. That lawsuit, Rosas v. Baca, was filed on behalf of individuals held in the jails and charged the sheriff and his staff with condoning the rampant abuse. The ACLU SoCal’s report and advocacy led to the formation of a civilian commission charged with investigating problems in the county lock ups. The ACLU SoCal looks forward to a settlement of its lawsuit that will force vigilant oversight and end the era of corruption in the nation’s largest jail system. The ACLU SoCal sues Los Angeles The ACLU SoCal and the County and then-Sheriff Peter The U.S. Supreme Court national ACLU publish a Pitchess on behalf of detainees rules unconstitutional a report documenting brutal in the county’s jail system statute that allows police beatings of Los Angeles charging the conditions of their to stop individuals and The ACLU SoCal files a County Jail inmates by confinement violate the Eighth require them to provide lawsuit on behalf of people sheriff’s deputies as part Representing two men who were Amendment’s prohibition against “credible” identification. with mobility impairments of an annual report on the beaten while detained in Los cruel and unusual punishment, The case, Kolender v. incarcerated in the L.A. County county’s jail system. Angeles County Jail, the ACLU and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Lawson, is argued by the jail system, arguing that SoCal files Rosas v. Baca charging protections for pretrial detainees, ACLU SoCal. the jails are not wheelchair Sheriff Lee Baca and his staff with resulting in the court appointing the accessible, and that inmates condoning a longstanding and ACLU as monitor of the jails. are denied mobility devices such as wheelchairs, widespread pattern of violence crutches, walkers, or canes, against inmates. even though they need them. 1975 1983 2008 2011 2012 IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS There was no bigger story this summer than the tens of thousands of unaccompanied children crossing the border. Children, some as young as 3 or 4, arrived seeking refuge from the drug and gang violence overwhelming much of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. But once here, those children and others already here were confronted with a byzantine court system that required toddlers and teens to represent themselves in complicated deportation hearings. In July 2014, the ACLU SoCal and the national ACLU, along with several other groups, sued Attorney General Eric Holder and the federal government on behalf of these children, many of whom face life or death consequences if deported back to their homelands. The lawsuit argues that children deserve legal representation in their deportation cases. The ACLU SoCal goes to court to fight the The ACLU SoCal and partners A federal court orders the Department government persecution of Japanese Americans block Proposition 187, a state of Homeland Security and the U.S. who renounced their citizenship at the Tule Lake ballot initiative that seeks to Department of Justice to provide legal Relocation Center. A court finds that they did so ban undocumented immigrants representation to Jose Antonio Franco- under duress and restores their U.S. citizenship. from accessing public services. Gonzales and other immigrant detainees with mental disabilities who are facing deportation and cannot represent themselves in court. The ACLU SoCal The ACLU SoCal wins and partners filed the lawsuit,Franco v. The ACLU SoCal and partners sue the an injunction requiring Holder, to ensure due process. federal government in Orantes-Hernandez a bond hearing before v. Smith, arguing that immigration officials an immigration judge detain and deport Salvadoran refugees for Alejandro Rodriguez using coercive tactics. A federal court and hundreds of other agrees and issues a nationwide permanent individuals who have been injunction requiring immigration officials detained in immigration to adopt new rules. jails for more than six months. 1949 1988 1994 2012 2013 EDUCATION More than a quarter of all students enrolled in California’s public schools do not speak English as a first language and many do not receive the essential English language instruction they are due under state and federal law. Among those left out by the state was a San Diego teen who stopped getting English Language services halfway through his junior year. He struggled to do his homework The ACLU SoCal and partners using an electronic translator. The State Department of Education was well aware that hundreds of school districts across California challenge Orange County’s policy of segregating Mexican children were not providing the required instructional services to English Learners but did nothing. So in April 2013, the ACLU SoCal filed a in schools. The lawsuit, Mendez lawsuit on behalf of students, challenging the state’s failure to ensure that school districts deliver the services English Leaners need. v. Westminster School District, is In August 2014, the court ruled the state must fulfill its obligation to the estimated 20,000 underserved students. the first case in which a federal court rules that “separate but equal” schools are illegal. Citing inadequate education for In response to an ACLU SoCal youths detained at Camp Challenger and partners lawsuit started juvenile detention center, the in 1963, a judge rules that The ACLU SoCal and partners win ACLU SoCal reaches a settlement Los Angeles Unified School a landmark victory for students in Casey A. v. Gundry, a landmark District has deliberately forced to attend substandard lawsuit filed against Los Angeles As part of a settlement of an ACLU perpetuated segregation and schools in Williams v. California, County. The agreement requires SoCal lawsuit, Governor Jerry Brown orders the integration of all forcing the state to provide clean sweeping reforms be put in place. signs into law a bill that guarantees the schools. and safe schools, textbooks, and state provides legal guidelines to school qualified teachers. districts on the requirement of free public education. 1947 1970 2004 2010 2012 LGBT RIGHTS What if you couldn’t marry the person you love, or adopt a child or bury your spouse because the state you live in doesn’t recognize your marriage? Those scenarios are realities for gay couples living in states with same-sex marriage bans. But, thanks to the ACLU’s work on Windsor v. United States that led to the landmark decision striking down the discriminatory federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), that is changing. The ACLU remains vigilant and continues to work to ensure all couples have the right to marry. In 2014, ACLU attorneys were involved in 17 cases across the United States, resulting in federal court rulings that finally provide gay and lesbian couples the freedom to marry.
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