Subject: American Civil Liberties Union

• Chapman responds to outlaw fraternity

  As reported yesterday on Navel Gazing, a group hoping to start a Jewish Fraternity at Chapman, see [Scarlet Letters, May 10] has issued a warning through the American Civil Liberties Union that the school cease what they consider violations of their First Amendment rights on campus or face the consequences. Read yesterday's post here. The ACLU vaguely threatened legal action if Chapman does not immediately allow the students to wear their shirts on campus as well as other public displays of th

  October 4, 2007

• Chapman settles suit with ACLU, Jewish Fraternity

  The ACLU Orange County Chapter plans to announce that it settled a case it brought against Chapman University regarding the school's censoring of an unrecognized chapter of the Jewish fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu, ACLU spokeswoman Celeste Durant says. Chapman senior Pascal DeMaria and more than a dozen other students attempted to found the Chapman fraternity unsuccessfully in 2006 [see "Scarlet Letters" May 10]. After Chapman refused to recognize them, the group began calling themselves Sigma Alp

  December 13, 2007

• Minutemen-Mexican Fundraiser!

  June 24, 2008

• The Computer Wore Colors

  July 22, 1999

• Sailor Suit

  January 11, 2001

• Dine and Dashboard

  March 29, 2001

• ACLU Sues Laguna Beach for Giving Homeless the Boot

  The ACLU filed a federal civil rights lawsuit today against the city of Laguna Beach for its "unlawful and inhumane policy of harassing and intimidating disabled homeless people." The suit alleges that the city's prolonged arrests of its small, disabled homeless population under the guise of an anti-sleeping ordinance is "blatantly unconstitutional" and criminalizes an otherwise helpless disabled population. Erwin Chemerinsky, chair of UC Irvine's law school, is acting as co-counsel.According t

  December 23, 2008

• Looking Back at 2008: The Ecstasy and the Irony

  This is not a look back at disgraced Sheriff Mike Carona, the Little Sheriff, the Debs, the Little Debbie Snack, the Freeway Complex Fire, Rick Warren, Wiley Drake, any lantern-jawed preacher with the last name of Schuller, pedo-priests, the 241 toll road extension, Proposition 8, fluctuating gasoline prices, the mortgage meltdown or the havoc that phenomenon wreaked. No, these are 15 stories from 2008 that may have fallen through the cracks were it not for the wonders of online archives and sl

  December 31, 2008

• OC Shows Respectable Level of Support for Prop. 8 Challenge

  According to the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal and the ACLU, among the Orange County contingent filing "friend of the court" briefs in support of Attorney General Jerry Brown's legal challenge of same-sex marriage barring Proposition 8:Irvine United Congregational ChurchOrange County Asian Pacific Islander Community AllianceThe Center Orange CountyChapman University groups Chapman Outlaw, Chapman Queer-Straight Alliance, Chapman Feminists, and Chapman SPEAK (Students for Peace

  January 22, 2009

• Still More Fun From the Prop. 8 Imbroglio . . .

  If it is even possible, there will be a greater concentration of gay and lesbian people in San Francisco on March 5, when the California Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the challenge of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. On the flipside, the day could also see a huge spike in intolerant religious zealot homophobic nutbars. Paaaartay! With the backing of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Attorney General Jerry Brown will ask the Supremes to invalidate Prop. 8 on grounds that cer

  February 3, 2009

• Supremes' Prop. 8 Oral Arguments Generate Vigils, Viewing Parties, Rallies

  Okay, Prop. 8, supporters, be honest: Would you rather attend a party thrown by gays or straights? If you answered the latter, well, then, you haven't been to a party thrown by gays, have you? Think of all the collected knowledge of Martha Stewart, the Queer Eye guys and Chelsea Handler funneled into a single event, and you get an idea of what kind of fab do you'd be in for.  So, perhaps you should put away your hateful signs and come on out to Eve of Justice, which refers to the evening be

  March 3, 2009

• ACLU Suing Newport-Mesa Schools Over "Rent" Debacle

  MOVING UP AND UPDATING WITH DISTRICT REACTION, MORE BACKGROUND.Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials say they were attempting to resolve a complaint stemming from the staging, cancellation and re-staging of the musical Rent at Corona del Mar High School when they learned today the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California was suing the public school system.The ACLU announced this morning its suit against the district and Corona del Mar High officials "for permitting and sanc

  March 18, 2009

• It's a Quick Read 29

  Orange County Register: Anaheim police want to question two men shown in an Angel Stadium surveillance video in the opening day assault death of Brian Powers, 27, of Buena Park. That's right, sports fans, they're even watching you in the cheap seats. . . . A man who was arrested at Disneyland last year was sentenced to 429 years to life in jail. No, it's not Mickey Mouse justice. Police learned wanted felon Anthony Hislar, 27, of Monrovia, was at the theme park, where he was apprehended and

  April 9, 2009

• Declassified FBI Files Exonerate Joel Dvorman, OC's Original Conservative Scapegoat

  June 26, 2008

• Capo Valley High's James Corbett Isn't the First Local Educator to Face OC's Cultural Conservatives

  April 10, 2008

• Smiley Coyotl

  When is a prosecutor not a prosecutor? The answer spared a Santa Ana activist/punk rocker from criminal charges

  October 11, 2007

• Unflinching Sincerity

  May 4, 2006

• Diary of a Mad County

  May 4, 2006

• The Mommy Party

  October 13, 2005

• Eight Days

  May 26, 2005

• Diary of a Mad County

  August 7, 2003

• Blitzed

  May 1, 2003

• Suspicious Minds

  April 10, 2003

• Jet Set!

  October 10, 2002

• Rave Off

  August 23, 2001

• Pompeii Dog

  August 9, 2001

• Censorship With a Happy Face

  January 25, 2001

• Scrubbing Bubbles

  June 8, 2000

• Bigger Than the Beatles

  March 30, 2000

• RE-CREATED HOMESPUN, SALT-OF-THE-EARTH WISDOM

  January 6, 2000

• DWUS

  April 29, 1999

• Jane Says

  February 18, 1999

• Geeks of the World, Unite!

  October 29, 1998

• ACLU Demanding That Feds Turn Over OC Mosque Spying Records

  The case that erupted with ex-con man Craig Monteilh's confession that he's been spying on OC mosques for the FBI will hit local federal courts this afternoon, when the ACLU makes arguments asking for the release of all theJohn GilhooleyCraig Monteilh says he spied on the Islamic Center of Irvine for the Feds. information attached to the FBI's infiltration of various local mosques. ACLU missive below: SANTA ANA, Calif. - In the wake of news that an FBI informant infiltrated several Orange County

  April 20, 2009

• ACLU: Guilty Pleas in Terror Case Pave Way for Appeals

  Mission Viejo's Hossein Kalani Afshari and six other Iranian-Americans who pleaded guilty last week to raising funds for a U.S.-designated terrorist group made the plea so they can appeal their case before a higher court, claims the ACLU. Besides 52-year-old Afshari, Roya Rahmani, 48, of Vienna, Va.; Alireza Mohammadmoradi, 38, of Los Angeles; Moustafa Ahmady, 54, of Los Angeles; Hassan Rezaie, 54, of Los Angeles; Navid Taj, 58, of Santa Monica; and Mohammad Omidvar, 54, of Corona entered guilty

  May 5, 2009

• Is the DA's Office Losing the Battle for an Orange Gang Injunction?

  Agapito MoralesSantiago Orange Growers Association, North Cypress Street, Orange, ca. 1950Senior Assistant DA John Anderson sat in the juror section of Superior Court Judge Kazuharo Makino's courtroom this morning with pursed lips. He listened closely to what Makino was going to say -- and how he would rule -- with regard to the preliminary gang injunction set to be imposed on some 20 alleged members of the Orange Varrio Cypress gang in Orange whose cases were being considered today. The last ti

  May 7, 2009

• In an Unprecedented Move, DA Dismisses Bulk of Gang Injunction Cases in Orange

  The District Attorney's office stunned ACLU attorneys arguing the cases of five defendants named in the city of Orange's latest gang injunction when it filed yesterday to completely dismiss the lawsuit against their five defendants and 57 others. The cases were set to go to trial July 6 and the ACLU was actively seeking information, documents, depositions with Orange police officers and the evidence the DA's office says it has to prove that those names are indeed active gang members. "What we di

  May 15, 2009

• ACLU Blames Hate Mongers Coming to CdM High on Original 'Rent' Stance

  Corona Del Mar High School officials' initial decision to cancel the student production of Rent and their subsequent failure to address a growing atmosphere of intolerance at the school created "a breeding ground for homophobic attitudes" that is bringing the Rev. Fred Phelps' "God Hates Fags" group to campus today, says American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California attorney Lori Rifkin.After first being allowed, then being canceled, then being allowed again, a tamer high school version

  April 24, 2009

• Orange's Barrio Cypress Residents Fought the DA's Gang Injunction—and Won (Sort Of)

  May 28, 2009

• ACLU Lawyer Honors: So LA. Who Needs 'Em? Oh, Wait ...

  Courtesy ACLU/SCBelinda Escobosa Helzer, staff attorney for the ACLU/SC, fights for Quan Am Temple. Hey, where's her award?Normally, we'd blow off the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California's 15th annual Law Luncheon on June 19. It's on a Friday, which is when we normally catch up on our soaps. It's in Los Angeles, at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, which we haven't stepped foot in since getting kicked out of our wedding reception. And the big honorees are legendary black la

  June 11, 2009

• DA Serves Permanent Injunction To Those Whose Cases The DA Had Dismissed

  The DA's office served a re-packaged permanent gang injunction this morning to dozens of people it has concluded are active gang participants in the Orange Varrio Cypress gang, including 62 individuals whose gang injunction cases the DA had already dismissed last month and who believed they were no longer subject to the injunction. (See our coverage here.)Lead assistant DA John Anderson in charge of gang injunctions says those dismissals only meant that the individuals would no longer have their

  June 11, 2009

• Pat Boone Talibanizes ACLU Over LAPD Special Order 40

  Pat Boone. American.The ACLU says the California Court of Appeals decision today to uphold the Los Angeles Police Department's use of Special Order 40--a decades old policy prohibiting officers from using immigration status to initiate investigations--"strikes a balance between immigrants' rights to equal protection and officers' duty to protect communities."That makes former bubble-gum singer-turned-evangelical Christian commentator and former owner of Orange County's KDOC-TV Channel 56 Pat Boo

  June 17, 2009

• Laguna Beach Settles Lawsuit Over Homeless Ordinance

  Laguna Beach agreed today to settle a lawsuit over the city's treatment of disabled homeless people, according to the ACLU of Southern California.   "Under the agreement, the city's police officers will not cite, arrest or harass people under state law simply for sleeping in public places, as long as there are no reasonable public health or safety concerns," states a just-released media advisory from the civil rights group. "The agreement also establishes a process for sealing, expungi

  June 25, 2009

• Angry Town Hall Mobs, Past and Present: The Joel Dvorman Connection

  Graphic we did on Dvorman and the FBI files that found no dirt on the man...​Got an email from a former resident of Orange County that...well, read it below. She references Orange County's original liberal martyr, Joel Dvorman, and my two articles on the Magnolia School District trustee who was recalled from his seat because he dared host a meeting of the ACLU in his Anaheim backyard. By the way, when is the ACLU of Orange County going to get a clue and rename their chapter after Dvorman in hi

  August 17, 2009

• UPDATED: ACLU Announces Settlement of Suit Tied to Corona del Mar High's Production of "Rent"

  Photo by Matt Coker Karyl Ketchum and Mike Wiggins talk about the hell their 17-year-old daughter Hail endured at Corona del Mar High School last school year.​Three varsity football players at Corona del Mar High School posted a video on the school's Facebook page in January in which they describe how and where they would rape now 17-year-old Hail Ketchum-Wiggins before disclosing the manner in which they would shoot her to death. The video also includes homophobic remarks directed at another

  September 9, 2009

• Can the Colectivo Tonantzin and the ACLU Beat Orange's Anti-Day-Laborer Ordinance?

  October 1, 2009

• Letters From OC Weekly Readers

  October 15, 2009

• Racist OC Register Reader Fustercluck of the Week: ACFU Edition

  Maybe all the hot weather of late has made the haters sluggish, but this was a particularly slow week for racist commentary in the OC Register's reader comments. For a while, it appeared that the bulk of stereotyping was directed at pitbulls, i.e., whether the breed has jaws that, unlike all other dogs, actually lock when they bite. But on Wednesday morning, the Southern California chapter of the ACLU--known among Register readers as the "American Communist Liberation Union"--had the temerity t

  September 25, 2009

• Racist OC Register Fustercluck of the Week: Laguna Edition

  Usually this column focuses on folks who hate Mexicans, immigrants, poor people, non-white people and "Third World peasants" who come to this country to build "clown houses"--yes, we're still scratching our heads about what the hell that means, although apparently it has something to do with Mexicans. But this week, we're taking a break to examine the reaction among Register readers to a local news story that ran earlier this week about two gentlemen in Laguna Beach who were arrested for committ

  September 4, 2009

• LGBT Groups Seek to Intervene in Prop. 8 Challenge

  This just in from the ACLU, which believes the action taken today will help a judge hearing a challenge of Prop. 8 understand the unequal rights inherent in the ballot initiative . . . SAN FRANCISCO -- Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today asked the U.S. District Court in San Francisco to allow Our Family Coalition, Lavender Seniors of the East Bay, and Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays to intervene in Pe

  July 8, 2009