vol. 62, no. 2

NEWSPAPER OF THE AMERICAN GIVIL pads tadalasd UNION oF NORTHERN GCALIFORNIA

aclu news.

SPRING 1998

Non-Profit

Organization

US Postage

PAID

Permit No. 4424

San Francisco, CA

Pinel a 41 |

NEW PUBLICATION

Reaching for the Dream:

Profiles in Affirmative Action

en a college recruiter came to

Raquel Arias' high school in rural

Kingsburg, the career counselors

told him, "Our Mexicans don't want to go to

college." It took a second trip to the farm-

worker community before the recruiter

was able to hand an application to Arias.

Today, the former San Joaquin Valley farm-

worker is a top surgeon and a USC gynecol-

ogy professor who was recently appointed

to the Medical Board of California, the elite

agency that oversees licensing of all the

state's doctors. |

Dr. Arias is one of the Californians pro-

filed in a new publication Reaching for the

Dream: Profiles in Affirmative Action

which was launched on March 16 at press

conferences at the ACLU offices in San

Francisco and Los Angeles.

Governor Wilson has targeted for elimina-

tion or curtailment citing their purported

violation of Proposition 209.

"We wanted to put a human face on the

sometimes abstract question of affirmative

action," said ACLU-NC Public Information

Director Elaine Elinson, an editor of

Reaching for the Dream. "We wanted

Californians to understand affirmative

action through the voices of people whose

lives have been changed by these invalu-

able programs."

A coalition of civil rights groups is dis-

tributing the booklet to media outlets and

community groups throughout the state.

The programs are now under attack in

legislation by Assembly member Bernie

Richter (R-Chico), AB 1700, which is due

to be heard in the Assembly Judiciary

The booklet describes the 31 statutes | Committee on April 21, and similar legisla-

and related state-funded programs that

Korematsu Honored

with Medal of Freedom

In January, Fred Korematsu was honored with the Medal of Freedom, the country's

highest civilian award, at a White House ceremony. As a tribute to Fred Korematsu

and his enduring courage, ACLU-NC Executive Director wrote the. following

"Perspective," which was aired on KQED-FM in February:

his week, as we commemorate the |

Day of Remembrance, marking 56 |

years since the Executive Order |

was issued during World War II which |

in the advancement of civil rights in this

country.

It was a long journey from Fred

Korematsu's incarceration in a local jail,

resulted in the incar- to concentration

ceration of more than camps, through the

110,000 Japanese darkest days of

Americans, we should

stop and reflect on the

journey of a true hero

of the civil rights move-

ment, Fred Korematsu.

- The way I've heard

the story is that in

June of 1942, Fred

Korematsu, a 22-year-

old draftsman, was

locked up in the

Oakland Jail, when he

was surprised to learn

that he had a visitor. It

turned out to be a

stranger, by the name

of Ernest Besig. |

Besig, who was then the Executive |

Director of the ACLU of Northern

California, had read an article in the local

paper about a U:S. citizen of Japanese

descent who refused to go quietly to the

internment camps. He clipped the article

and drove to the jail to meet Fred

wartime anti-Japan-

ese hysteria, all the

way to the US.

Supreme Court. His

-brave challenge to

the government's

decision to intern

Japanese Americans

_. was rejected then by

S S the high court; his

|= conviction for refus-

sing to obey was

= upheld. It was a jour-

ney so painful, that

for decades he could-

n't even share these

events with his own children. Yet forty

years later, with that same sense of jus-

tice and courage, he decided to reopen

the case; and, in 1988, won a successful

reversal of his conviction.

This long journey made the short walk

to the podium last month, to accept the

Medal of Freedom from the President of

Korematsu and to offer the ACLU'S assis- the United States, a sweet irony. Once

tance in representing him. | denounced as an enemy alien, today Fred

Who could have known on that sum- | Korematsu is the recipient of the highest

mer day that Fred Korematsu's resis- civilian honor for his courage in trying to

tance, born out of some very basic sense force a nation, even during a time of war,

of justice, and his meeting with Ernie | to adhere to the principles of the Bill of

Besig, would create a significant chapter Rights.

Fred Korematsu at the 1995 Bill of

Rights Day Celebration.

INSIDE:

Continued on page 4

_ Melissa Noel, a sophomore at Chico State University, accompanied by her sister

Amber (right) and other students from the American Indian Early Childhood

Education Program, told a crowded press conference at the ACLU office about the ben-

efits of the innovative program - now targeted for elimination by Governor Wilson.

Congress Restores

SSI to Immigrants

undreds of thousands of elderly,

Hoi: and disabled legal residents _

and |

hunger without Supplemental Security |

Income (SSI) benefits have been assured |

of their right to receive public assistance -

who faced homelessness

thanks in part to a lawsuit challenging fed-

eral legislation that would have purged

legal immigrants from the SSI rolls.

After the ACLU-NC and a coalition of |

civil rights attorneys filed the class action _

lawsuit Sutich v. Callahan in U.S. District

Court in March, 1997, Congress restored |

SSI benefits to most legal residents as part |

of the Balanced Budget Act. In December -

the Social Security Administration subse-

quently issued instructions to allow those

noncitizens to receive their benefits. As a

result, Sutich was dismissed without preju-

dice on January 18. The ACLU suit, filed in

conjunction with other civil rights organi-

zations and cooperating attorneys from

Heller Ehrman White and McAuliffe, mir-

rored multiple lawsuits filed throughout

the country.

Attorney Judith Gold of Heller said, "It

is a-great relief that this anti-immigrant

legislation has been repealed. This success

can be credited in no small way to the

plaintiffs who had the courage to tell their

personal stories to the public."

- The Sutich case was filed on behalf of

legal residents who receive subsistence-

level SSI benefits because they cannot

work due to advanced age or disability.

The plaintiffs were being denied SSI bene-

fits or would have been purged from SSI

rolls as a result of the so-called "welfare

pound997 ACLU-NC ANNUAL REPORT

`Pacific American Legal

reform" bill passed by Congress and signed

by President Clinton in 1996. More than

forty percent of those who would have been

affected live in California.

The lawsuit charged that Section 402 of

the Personal Responsibility and Work

Opportunity Act of 1996 violated the con-

stitutional rights of indigent legal resident

immigrants by unfairly barring them from

receiving SSI because of their non-citizen

status.

ACLU-NC managing attorney Alan

Schlosser said, "Congress corrected unjust

legislation which would have threatened

the lives of full-fledged members of our

society, many who were welcomed to this

country under U.S. national immigration

policies like family unification, worker

recruitment, and refugee asylum."

The case was litigated by cooperating

attorneys Judith Z. Gold, Paul W.

Sugarman, Roger W. Doughty, Thomas P.

Brown, Robert Mahnke and Jeff Hessekiel

of the San Francisco law firm Heller,

Ehrman, White and McAuliffe; ACLU-NC

attorneys Alan Schlosser and Edward

Chen; ACLU National Immigrants' Rights

Director Lucas Guttentag; Yolanda Vera

and Linton Joaquin of the National

Immigration Law Center; Victor Hwang

and Gen Fujioka of the National Asian

Consortium;

Gerald A. McIntyre and Herbert Semmel of

the National Senior Citizens Law Center;

Melinda Bird and Giocando R. Molina of

Protection and Advocacy, Inc.; and Robert

Rubin of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil

Rights.

esponding to a warning from the

ACLU that mandatory use of

unfiltered or a filtered computer to both

adult and minor library patrons. Minors do

not need parental consent to use an unfil-

tered computer.

The resolution came less than a week

after the National ACLU and the ACLU affil-

iates of Northern and Southern Cali-fornia

told Kern County officials that the organiza-

tion would take legal action if they did not

remove Internet filtering software from

public library computers within 10 days.

"This is a victory for free speech

rights," said ACLU-NC staff attorney Ann

Brick. "Web sites accessed from a library's

computer are just like the books on a

library's shelves. The Constitution pre-

vents the government from censoring

either one."

The controversy began in July 1996,

after the Kern County Board of Supervisors

passed a resolution to block on-line mater-

ial defined under California state law as

"harmful to minors." Upon learning that

the Board's solution involved installation

of a filtering program called "Bess," the

ACLU contacted county officials.

Although developers of Bess software

had earlier informed the Board that they

could not customize the software to only

filter "harmful matter" as defined by

the California Penal Code, the Board went

ahead with the program. Only after hear-

ing from the ACLU did the Board go back

BY KELLI EVANS

STAFF ATTORNEY

lived together for several years as

domestic partners. At the inception

of the relationship, Wagner already had a

isa Wagner and Kathleen Crandall

the relationship, Wagner and Crandall

jointly decided to have a second child.

Wagner gave birth to the child and

Crandall participated in the birth.

Crandall's surname was given to the child

and Crandall and Wagner continued to live

together and share parenting activities for

several years following the second child's

birth. The women jointly raised the chil-

dren for eleven years.

When the couple separated, both chil-

dren remained with Wagner. However,

Crandall continued to visit regularly with

both children, with whom she shared a lov-

ing parental relationship and a deep

attachment. But disputes between Wagner

and Crandall eventually led Wagner to cut

off her former partner's contact with the

children.

In every sense of the term, Crandall

was the children's de facto parent. Under

current law, however, if the de facto par-

ent's relationship with the child's legal par-

ent terminates, the de facto parent has no

standing to #initiate# custody or visitation

proceedings. Instead, she must wait for

someone with standing to bring a proceed-

Internet filtering software could |

result in a lawsuit, on January 28, Kern |

County agreed to provide a choice of an |

|

three-year-old child. During the course of |

|

Kern County

_ Library Removes

Internet Filters

to the makers of Bess and ask - unsuccess-

fully - that the company "refine" the soft-

ware.

Among the web sites the software

blocked were political sites such as those

advocating drug policy reform and the site

of Hate Watch, an organization dedicated

to working to eliminate bigotry.

"We applaud the Board of Supervisors'

decision to honor the First Amendment

rights of Kern County readers by changing

its library Internet access policy to allow

all adult and minor patrons to decide for

themselves whether to access the Internet

with or without a filter," said national

ACLU staff attorney Ann Beeson, in a letter

to the County counsel.

Beeson also urged the libraries to (c)

clearly mark filtered and non-filtered ter-

minals so that patrons can make informed

decisions about which terminal to use, and

to place terminals for maximum privacy.

The filtering issue has drawn many cities

across the country into a national debate

about whether library systems should limit

what people can see on the Internet.

On the other side of the country, the

National ACLU has intervened in a lawsuit

on behalf of on-line speakers, including

San Francisco Examiner columnist Rob

Morse, whose web site has been filtered

out of local library computers in Loudon

County, Virginia.

"Libraries are our nation's storehouses

of knowledge," said Brick. "Their mission

is to make that knowledge available to

young and old alike. Filters are fundamen-

tally antithetical to that mission."

ACLU Joins

Landmark Lesbian

Custody Case

ing (such as the juvenile court, a grandpar-

ent, or a stepparent). However, if no one

else initiates the proceeding, and the par-

ent with the legal claim to the child forbids

further contact, the de facto parent has no

alternative but to withdraw from the

child's life.

In search of a forum to raise her cus-

tody/visitation claims, Crandall filed an

action under the Probate Code for

Guardianship. In a landmark ruling, an

Alameda County trial judge recognized

that a de facto parent may be entitled to a

limited form of personal guardianship in

order to obtain visitation rights to chil-

dren. The court granted jurisdiction and

held the first lesbian co-parent

custody/visitation trial in California histo-

ry. However, Crandall lost her visitation

battle due to latent homophobia and the

misapplication of current law. She

appealed the decision to the First District

Court of Appeal. :

The ACLU of Northern California,

along with the National Center for Lesbian

Rights, filed an #amicus# brief with the

appellate court which argues that the de

facto parent doctrine protects a lesbian co-

parent's right to maintain a relationship

with children for whom she has shouldered

all the responsibilities of parenthood. In

turn, the brief argues that de facto parents

must be provided a fair forum in which to

raise their claims. and

Ballot Initiatives = Vote on June 2

PROPOSITION 226 - VOTE NO

PROPOSITION 227 - VOTE NO x

Don't End Bilingual Education - NO on 227

This measure, authored by Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley millionaire who has publicly

admitted that he has never stepped foot in a bilingual education classroom, would jeop-

ardize teachers who assist students in their home language and deny an equal educa-

tion to more than a million school children.

The untested Unz scheme would force children of all ages and all language back-

grounds into a single classroom all day for one year with a teacher who would be pro-

hibited by law - and under threat of a lawsuit - from teaching any of them in their

own language.

The ACLU-NC Board of Directors voted to actively oppose Proposition 227 because:

- it discriminates against language minorities and immigrants and has a dispro-

portionate impact on racial minorities. The law will have a severe and detrimental

impact on Latinos and Asians who make up the vast majority of limited English profi-

cient students in the California public schools. In Lau v. Nichols the Supreme Court.

found San Francisco's failure to provide special assistance to immigrant students vio-

lated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act which prohibits recipients of federal funds

from discrimination against racial and national origin minorities.

- it would harm the educational opportunities of immigrant children. The most

comprehensive study of bilingual education by the National Research Council shows

that children learn best (English as well as other subjects) in longer-term transition-

al bilingual education programs where students make a gradual transition into all-

English courses over several years. As the U.S. Supreme Court stated in Law,

"students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any mean-

ingful education."

- it would violate the due process rights of parents. The burdensome and intimi-

dating process of obtaining a waiver for bilingual education would make it difficult, if

not impossible, for many parents, especially those with immigration documentation

problems, to assert their rights.

- it feeds into and fortifies a climate of racism and anti-immigrant scapegoat-

ing. The Proposition 227 campaign of misinformation, stereotypes and distortions of

statistics and the law, is another step on the downward continuum of Proposition 187,

Proposition 209 and the federal immigration and welfare "reforms." The initiative is

also related to the broader "English-only" movement, which is predicated on the

notion that multiple language services provided by the government constitute a

threat to the stability of the American society - a premise that the ACLU has long-

sought to expose as false and oppose in practice.

The ACLU is actively involved in the campaign to defeat the Proposition 227. Coalitions

are meeting in San Francisco and other communities to build the grassroots effort to

stop this measure.

Stopping Union Political Activity -Noon226 +3 -

_ The ACLU-NC Board of Directors, on the recommendation of the Legislative Policy

Committee, voted in March to oppose Proposition 226 for the following reasons:

The initiative would establish a burdensome requirement that every member of a

union would have to affirmatively agree every year to have any portion of their union

- dues used for political activity.

Currently, an individual can choose not to pay dues to the union, except for the

costs for representation in the collective bargaining process. ACLU supports this right

of indviduals to "opt out," i.e., not have dues spent on political issues on which they dis-

agree, 5

Proposition 226 turns this around and requires every union member every year to

reauthorize the union to speak on their behalf. It would institute a complex bureaucra-

cy of authorization and forms, which the ACLU-NC believes will result unreasonable

limitations on speech.

The burdensome requirements of Prop. 226 were designed to-and will- severely

limit a union's ability to organize and speak out on behalf of its rank-and-file members,

thereby silencing less powerful voices in the political process. In addition, the require-

ments directly interfere with democratic rights of the union, which the ACLU has long

supported.

For more information or to join the campaigns to stop these initiatives,

call Field Representative Lisa Maldonado at 415/621-2493 ext. 46.

oe : AGLU News = Sprinc 1998 = Pace 2

Court Allows Open

Meeting Lawsuit

Against Governor,

Regents for Anti-Affirmative

n March 11, the California Court of

(ines ruled that an Open Meeting

Act lawsuit against Governor

Wilson and the U.C. Regents could proceed

as there is information to support plain-

tiffs' claim that the Governor and Regents

broke the law.

"This ruling is a victory for the public's

right to know," said ACLU-NC attorney Ed

Chen.

The suit was initiated in February

1996, when student reporter Tim Molloy,

and the UC Santa Barbara student newspa-

per, The Nexus, charged that Governor

Wilson and the Regents violated the Bagley

Keene Open Meeting Act by secretly lock-

ing up the votes of a majority of Regents

through a series of private phone conversa-

tions prior to the July 20, 1995 meeting at

which the Board voted to approve resolu-

tions abolishing affirmative action at the

University.. The students are represented

by the ACLU affiliates of Southern and

Northern California, the First Amendment

Project and others.

The Governor and Regents sought to

have the suit, Molloy v. UC Regents, dis-

missed on procedural grounds. The trial

court refused to do so, and the Court of

Appeal's decision affirms that ruling. The

decision will allow the plaintiffs to take

depositions regarding the Governor's and

Regents' alleged wrongdoing. It also pro-

tects the ability of citizens and newspapers

to challenge official wrongdoing in the

future by seeking a determination from the

court that the Regents violated the law.

The decision does not, however, allow Molloy

Action Vote

to obtain a remedy of nullification of the UC

Regents vote on affirmative action,

because his suit was filed after the 30-day

statute of limitation.

ACLU-SC attorney Dan Tokaji said,

"This ruling means that Governor Wilson

and the Regents will have to stop

stonewalling, and disclose information

that should have been made public months

ago."

ACLU Asks S.F. Mayor to

Ensure City Employees'

Speech Rights

Willie Brown, ACLU-NC Managing

Attorney Alan Schlosser asked the

Mayor to issue a directive to ensure that

"city employees who wish to exercise

their constitutional rights may do so with-

out fear of reprisal."

The ACLU demand was prompted ini-

tially by a complaint to the ACLU about a

Muni restriction limiting employee con-

tact with the media. Schlosser noted

that in a letter from Muni chief Emilio

Cruz, he was informed that Cruz had clar-

ified the policy to apply only to those

comments that employees make as Muni

[: a letter to San Francisco Mayor

representatives and not as individuals.

"However, it seems that city employees in

other departments are burdened by simi-

larly overbroad policies which restrict

their free speech rights,' Schlosser

wrote.

Because statements by city officials

quoted in the media conflict with the First

Amendment, Schlosser urged the Mayor to

issue a directive to all city departments

which makes it clear that public employ-

ees who are speaking as individuals and

not on behalf of the city have the same

right to discuss public affairs with the

media as any other citizen.

Chen and Lobaco Honored

wo ACLU-NC . staff members,

[eet Director Francisco

. Lobaco and staff attorney Ed Chen,

were honored recently for their outstand-

ing efforts for civil liberties.

On March 26, Lobaco was honored by

the Society of Professional Journalists

with the James Madison Award for his

work on a bill which would have restored

the media's right to interview California

prisoners face-to-face. The award was

presented to him at SPJ's annual awards

dinner held at the Fort Mason Officer's

Club in San Francisco.

Due in large part to Lobaco's lobbying

efforts, the bill passed with a majority vote

in both houses, however, Governor Wilson

vetoed the measure. The bill attempted to

reverse the California Department of

Correction's (CDC) 1996 ban on face-to-

face interviews with specified prisoners

and corifidential mail between media and

all prisoners claiming "security concerns."

Falsely Detained

Teen Can't Get

Damages Under

Civil Rights Law

py Maria ARCHULETA

n January 29, the California

O Supreme Court ruled that a sixteen-

year old African American who was

unlawfully detained by retail store employ-

ees cannot receive damages or attorneys

fees for the violation of his civil rights

because a private entity, not the govern-

ment, committed the violation.

The ACLU-NC filed an amicus brief in

Jones v. K-Mart on behalf of the innocent

teenager, arguing that California Civil

Code extends constitutional rights, such as

protection against unreasonable searches

and seizures, to private entities as well as

to the government.

K-Mart employees forcibly search-ed,

detained and handcuffed the teenager as

a suspected shoplifter which left him with

lingering back and neck problems. After

the humiliating and painful struggle, the

employees realized that he had not stolen

anything and released him before the

police arrived. The young man then sued

the store.

A jury decided that the employees did |

not discriminate against the plaintiff

because of his race, but that they did vio-

late his constitutional rights. He was

awarded damages and attorneys fees

under California's Bane Act which explic-

itly states that private parties need not be

acting under the "color of the law" for

their conduct to be considered in viola-

tion of constitutional protections when

they act in an intimidating or coercive

manner.

K-Mart appealed the jury award and

the California Court of Appeal reversed

the ruling. When the young man appealed

to the California Supreme Court, the

ACLU-NC filed a friend of the court brief.

ACLU Managing Attorney Alan Schlos-

ser said, "Both the plain statutory language

and the legislative history showed an

intent to broaden constitutional protec-

tions so that Californians are protected

from intimidating and coercive actions by

private as well as state actors. The Court's

narrow interpretation represents an

unwarranted judicial rewriting of this

important civil rights statute."

ACLU News = Spring 1998 = Pace 3

On February 27, the Asian American Bar

Association (AABA) of the Greater Bay

Area honored Ed Chen with the 1998 Joe

Morozumi Award for Exceptional Legal

Advocacy. The award was presented by

Jeff Adachi of the San Francisco Public

Defender's Office at the AABA's 20th

Annual Installation Dinner at the Empress

of China restaurant in San Francisco.

Chen was part of the legal team that

challenged the legality of Proposition 209

in Coalition for Economic Equity v..

Wilson and authored the ACLU's amicus

brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in

Croson v. Richmond, in support of a city

minority contracting program. He is

nationally known as an expert on lan-

guage discrimination and has litigated

numerous cases involving English-only

workplace rules, accent discrimination,

government restrictions on foreign lan-

guage business signs and the constitu-

tionality of laws proclaiming English as

the official language. Hf

You've Sent Checks to the ACLU -

Now Let Us Send Checks to You!

By participating in the

ACLU Foundation's Gift

Annuity Program

you can receive quarterly income checks for the rest of your life and, at the same

time, help the American Civil Liberties Union protect our precious constitutional

rights for years to come. The rate of return you can receive depends upon your age.

Much of this income is tax-free! And, because your annuity contract will help the

ACLU Foundation, you will receive a sizable income tax charitable deduction for

participating. Return this form for a personalized illustration.

SINGLE RATE OF

BENEFICIARY AGE RETURN

55 6.7%

60 6.9%

65 7.2%

70 7.1%

15 8.4%

80 9.4%

Bh ee 10.5%

10 eee eee 12.0%

ACLU Foundation Gift Annuity Rates

Two RATE OF

BENEFICIARY AGES RETURN

Seb eee eee 6.5%

60:60 6.6%

65:65. Se. 6.8%

10-10. ee. 7.1%

DD eS 7.5%

80:30. 8.2%

0505.2 9.2%

9090. ee. 10.8%

Name(s)

We encourage you to consult with your tax professional before entering into a gift annuity agreement to

_ make sure you have a thorough understanding of the financial consequences of this transaction. 2

___ Please tell me more about the ACLU Annuity Program

Birthdate(s)

Address

Telephone

City

Zip

State

Mail to:

Stan Yogi, ACLU Foundation of Northern California, 1663 Mission

Street, Suite 460, San Francisco, CA 94103. Tel: (415) 621-2493, ext. 30.

Continued from page |

tion by Senator Quentin Kopp (J-San

Francisco). Reaching for the Dream has

been distributed to all members of the |

state Legislature so that they will be aware

of the value of the threatened programs. _

This 32-page booklet provides thumb-

nail sketches of all of the threatened pro-

grams - ranging from the California

Academic Partnership Program, which has

provided more than 130,000 K-12 students

with mentoring, to the programs that pro-

vide opportunities for women- and minori-

ty-owned businesses at the state and local

level.

The legal and policy discussion,

Affirmative Action: Still Fair, Still

Necessary, compiled by some of the leading

civil rights lawyers in the state, explains

that these programs help to remedy dis-

crimination: They give no preferences to

anyone but provide opportunities for thou-

sands of Californians to reach for their

dreams.

At the heart of Reaching for the Dream

are the moving personal profiles of the peo-

ple whose lives have been changed by affir- |

mative action in California. In addition to

Dr. Arias, they include:

Maidu students from the Yuba County

American Indian Early Childhood

Education Program (ECE) - credited

with helping achieve a dramatic reduction

in the area's high school dropout rate |

PUBLICATION ORDER FORM

Name

Reaching for the Dream...

through an innovative mix of computer

training and Native American arts. This

unique program, which is targeted for

elimination by Assemblyman Richter's bill,

is in Richter's district, yet he has never vis-

ited it.

Rosa Manriquez, the daughter of a

Mexican immigrant restaurant worker

whose junior high school grades were sink-

ing fast when she was invited to join a spe-

cial summer academic program for

Hispanics in Oakland, part of the

California Student Opportunity and

Access Program. Her grades and aspira-

tions soared. The first person in her family

to graduate from high school, she is now a

freshman at UC Berkeley with a full schol-

arship.

L.J. Dolin, Jennifer Stafford and

Debra Tudor, three of the handful of |

women in the Elevator Union, Local 8, who

fought discrimination and harassment to

-enter this once-closed trade. One had the

highest grade point average among the 200

graduates in her Army mechanics school

yet had to spend five years trying to get

hired in the elevator repair industry. They

are convinced that without affirmative

action other women will not have the same

chance.

Derek Smith, a 31-year old African

American contractor who has worked on

numerous construction projects, including

Single copies are available at $3.;

Bulk orders are $25 for each order of ten.

Please send me copies of Reaching for the

Dream: Profiles in Affirmative Action.

I have enclosed a check for $

(Please make checks payable to ACLU-

NC/Publications)

Organization.

Address

City.

Daytime telephone

State Zip

(in case we have questions about your order)

Mail to Reaching for the Dream %ACLU of Northern California,

Chapter Meetings

(Chapter meetings are open to all interested members.

Contact the Chapter activist listed for your area.)

B-A-R-K (Berkeley-Albany-Richmond-Ken-

sington) Chapter Meeting: (Usually fourth

Thursday) For more information, time and address of

meetings, contact Jim Chanin at 510/848-4752 or

Rachel Richman at 510/540-5507.

Fresno Chapter Meeting: (Usually fourth Tuesday).

Please join our newly-reorganized Chapter! Meetings are

held at 7:00 PM at the Fresno Center for Non-Violence.

For more information, call Bob Hirth 209/225-6223

(days).

Lesbian and Gay Rights Chapter Meeting:

(Usually first Thursday) For schedule of meetings or more

information, contact Steve Zollman at 510/845-7108.

Marin County Chapter Meeting: (Usually third |

Monday) Meet at 7:30 p.m. at the Corte Madera Town

Center, Community Meeting Room. For more information,

contact Kerry Peirson at 415/383-3989.

1663 Mission Street, Suite 460, San Francisco, CA 94103.

Mid-Peninsula Chapter Meeting: (Usually fourth

Thursday) Meet at 7:00 PM, at 460 South California

Avenue, Suite 11, Palo Alto. For more information, con-

tact Ken Russell at 650/325-8750.

Monterey County Chapter Meeting: (Usually

third Tuesday) Meet at 7:15 PM, Monterey Library. For

more information, contact Richard Criley at 408/624-

7562.

North Peninsula (San Mateo area) Chapter

Meeting: (Usually third Monday) Meet at 7:30 PM, at

700 Laurel Street, Park Tower Apartments, top floor. For

more information, contact Marshall Dinowitz at

415/595-5131.

Redwood (Humboldt County) Chapter

Meeting: (Usually third Thursday) Meet at Chan's at

359 G Street in Arcata at 7:00 PM. For information on

upcoming meeting dates and times, contact Christina

Huskey at 707/444-6595.

Sacramento Valley Chapter Meeting: (Usually

first Wednesday) Meet at 7:00 PM at the Java City in

Sutter Galleria (between 29 and 30, J and K Streets) in

the renovation

of San Francis-

co's "Crookedest

Street in the

World." This

Stanford gradu-

ate credits the

Minority Busin-

ess Enterprise

program with

giving him the

notice and op-

portunity to

make a name for

his new compa-

ny in a white

male-dominated

industry. He

now employs

young black men

and women from

Bayview/Hunters

Point.

Cecelia Blanks, a former welfare recip-

ient and single mother from San Diego who

. got her master's degree and now teaches

college and counsels students facing simi-

lar hardships. Extended Opportunity

Programs and Services (EOPS) helped

make her transition possible. ~

Fred Lau who passed the police acade-

my's tough written exam but was told that

a5 foot, 7 1/4-inch man couldn't be a police

officer because, among other things, his

baton "would drag on the ground." Today

he is the Chief of Police of San Francisco,

one of the state's most diverse depart-

ments.

Lisa Campbell, a Chino Hills

Republican who founded an environmen-

tal cleanup company. With good-faith

efforts to seek out women subcontractors

required by government, Campbell at one

time received up to 50 job notices a week.

Elevator-repair worker Debra Tudor, flanked by fellow elevator work-

ers Jennifer Stafford (standing left) and L.J. Dolin (standing right)

spoke of continuing discrimination against women in the trades.

After 209 passed, she was told, "We don't

have to take your bid. There's no more good

faith effort."

The moving and colorful profiles were

written by Peter Y. Sussman, immediate

past president of the Northern California

Chapter of the Society of Professional

Journalists and a former San Francisco

Chronicle editor. The booklet also includes

an introduction by ACLU-NC Board mem-

ber David B. Oppenheimer, an Associate

Professor of Law at Golden Gate University.

The editorial board included contributors

from the ACLU affiliates of Northern and

Southern California, Equal Rights

Advocates, Lawyers' Committee for Civil

Rights and others. The booklet, which is a

project of a consortium of a dozen civil

rights organizations, was published with

generous assistance from the van Loben

Sels Foundation. @

The ACLU of

Northern California

Sacramento. For more information, contact Ruth Ordas

at 916/488-9955.

San Francisco Chapter Meeting: (Third Tuesday)

Meet at 6:45 PM at the ACLU-NC Office, 1663 Mission

Street, Suite #460, San Francisco. The San Francisco

Board would like to welcome and talk to new chapter

members at the New Members Party on Friday,

April 3, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Special Guest:

Sue Bierman. For more information, call the Chapter

Information Line at 415/979-6699.

Santa Clara Valley Chapter Meeting: (Usually

first Tuesday) Meet at 7:00 PM at the Community Bank

Towers, Ist Floor Conference Room, 111 West St. John

Street, San Jose. For further chapter information contact

Jon Cox at 408/293-2584.

Santa Cruz County Chapter Meeting: (Usually

third Monday) Meet at 7:15 PM. For more information,

contact Dianne Vaillancourt at 408/454-0112.

Sonoma County Chapter Meeting: (Usually third

Tuesday) Meet at 7:30 PM at the Peace and Justice Center,

540 Pacific Avenue, Santa Rosa. Call Judith Volkart at

Be) Maia a yaaa

NEWS FROM

Oe waaay

u can find press

Yolo County Chapter Meeting: (Usually third

Tuesday) Meet at 7:30 PM, 2505 5th Street 154, Davis.

For more information, call Natalie Wormeli at 916/756-

1900 or the Chapter Hotline at 916/756-ACLU.

Chapters Reorganizing

If you are interested in reviving the Mt. Diablo or

North Valley Chapter, please contact Field

Representative Lisa Maldonado at 415/621-2493.

Field Action

Meetings

(All meetings except those noted will be held at the ACLU-

NC Office, 1663 Mission Street, 460, San Francisco.)

Student Outreach Committee: Meet to plan out:

reach activities. For more information, contact Nancy Otto

at 415/621-2006 ext. 37.

Student Advisory Committee: For more informa-

tion, contact Nancy Otto at 415/621-2006 ext. 37. i

| ACLU News = Sprinc 1998 = Pace 4

of the ACLU of

Northern California,

Dorothy M. Ehrlich

Executive Director

Dick Grosboll

Chair

American Civil Liberties Union of

Northern California

1663 Mission Street #460

San Francisco, California 94103.

www.aclunc.org

OD he report which follows is a lively account of the intense activities

which the ACLU-NC engaged in during 1997, where the organization

battled on the forefront of nearly every significant civil liberties issue of

the day.

The theme for this year's report is most appropriately represented by (c)

the Chinese word for "crisis." The word is made of two characters:

danger and opportunity, which so aptly describe our response to the for-

midable challenges which confronted us this year.

What is most remarkable about our response this year to the "crises"

- from our legal defeat in our effort to have Proposition 209 declared

unconstitutional to the onslaught of attacks on the poor and on immi-

grants to homophobic attacks on teachers by local religious right

activists - is the depth of our capacity to strike back at each one of ~

these attacks on the most vulnerable members of our society.

Because of your support, the ACLU-NC has grown considerably over

the years, providing us with the resources we need to develop extraordi-

nary new programs: our Howard Friedman First Amendment Education

Project, now in its sixth year, has reached tens of thousands of high

school students and is developing student civil liberties leaders who will

take us into the next century; our a new northern California web site:

WWW. ACLUNC.ORG; and our decision to add a Racial Justice lawyer

position to respond both to the aftermath of Proposition 209 as well as

to help support our new Race and Criminal Justice Project which focuses

on challenging the disproportionate number of people of color in jails,

prisons and juvenile facilities throughout our state.

The growth of these new programs allows us to think in a much

more comprehensive and strategic way about the most vexing and dis-

_turbing trends confronting civil libertarians. As we aim to educate the

public and policy makers, as well as to develop legal and field organizing

strategies, the ACLU-NC has never been better prepared to respond to

these "dangers" and to genuinely turn them into opportunities for

action.

These opportunities stretch us to think through whole new issues

and approaches - such as our role in the first challenges to the intro-

duction of "filtering" software, clumsily designed to severely limit what

is available to young people on the Internet in school and public

libraries. Or the burgeoning movement, in response to our landmark

victory in the California Supreme Court guaranteeing the right of young

women to access to abortion without parental consent, to repeal that

right through a ballot measure.

These dangerous times also provide a rich environment for opportu-

nities to collaborate with so many of our allies: the cooperating attorneys

who give so generously to the ACLU-NC, our coalition partners; our sis-

ter ACLU affiliates here in California as well as our national office; our

16 local chapters, our ACLU student activists; and especially with you,

tne people who support the ACLU of Northern California.

When you read the report which follows, we hope you will share our

pride 1m the innovative ways that the ACLU-NC is responding to the

Challenges brought forth by "crisis."

1997 ACLU-NC ANNUAL REPORT

Ya

of the

5. Legal Docket

Ve you look at Highlights of our Legal Docket you will understand why we have taken

the Chinese character for "crisis" as our theme this year. The word is made of two other char-

acters: danger and opportunity. In 1997, we faced serious dangers to civil liberties and, as an

organization, we have turned them into opportunities to preserve our rights.

Some of the challenges we faced this year were born out of dangers on a national level -

an unprecedented assault on affirmative action following the passage of Proposition 209, wel-

fare reform legislation coupled with renewed assaults on the rights of the poor, laws to censor

the newest arena of expression: cyberspace.

We met these challenges with vision and determination - and some success. We won a

landmark victory in the California Supreme Court securing the right of young women to

choose an abortion without parental or judicial consent. That victory means that California -

where the teen pregnancy rate is the highest in the country - is

one of just a few states where teenagers' reproductive rights, and

their physical and mental health, are protected.

We have also been able to turn back attempts to stifle freedom

of expression both in cyberspace, where federal legislation and local

measures aimed to stem the free flow of information, and in class-

rooms, where teachers were threatened with loss of credentials for

allowing their students to discuss lesbian and gay issues.

Another crisis - the passage of Proposition 209, continues to

haunt us. Our litigation to stop this anti-affirmative action measure

from being implemented was successful in the District Court, but

was rejected by the Court of Appeals and later by the U.S. Supreme

Court which refused to hear the case. Our arguments supporting

equality for women and minorities resonated powerfully through-

out the state, though, and our new battles will take place in many

courts where different cities and agencies seek to defend their pro-

grams, in the Legislature and in the court of public opinion.

We face new challenges because of today's economic hardships

and political scapegoating. The rights of the homeless, of immi-

grants, of welfare recipients, of prisoners, of the chronically ill -

as well as the free expression rights of a new generation of activist

students and others who would protest today's injustices - are

under attack. We face new challenges when technology allows

police to train high-powered cameras on people reading the news-

paper on a park bench or to compile statewide "gang" databases of

young people based simply on their race or style of dress.

Our innovative legal work takes us from school boards to the

Supreme Court as we seek justice in these dangerous times.

In 1997, the ACLU-NC Legal Department was directed by

Managing Attorney Alan Schlosser and staffed by lawyers Ann

Brick, Edward Chen, John Crew, Margaret Crosby and Kelli Evans.

The staff attorneys were ably assisted by Frances Beal and Leah

Nestell.

In addition, the national ACLU Immigrant Rights Project,

directed by attorney Lucas Guttentag, maintains a center in our

affiliate office. The presence of this project informs and supports our own work in the crucial

arena of immigrant and refugee rights.

The Legal Department also oversees the work of the Complaint Desk. The Desk, staffed by

a dozen volunteer counselors, receives more than 200 calls and letters each week from people

who feel their rights have been violated. Advised by the staff attorneys and law students who

clerk for the ACLU-NC during the year, these lay counselors screen requests for assistance and

often provide the advocacy needed to resolve particular grievances.

We share the accomplishments of our legal program with more than 100 dedicated lawyers

who donate their services to the ACLU-NC as cooperating attorneys. Almost half of our cases

this year were handled by cooperating attorneys working with staff counsel. Without their

expertise and advocacy the ACLU-NC would not be able to address many pressing civil liber-

ties issues. A list of the 1997 cooperating attorneys and firms is on page 19.

Though we cannot describe every one of our current cases, we summarize here the high-

lights of our legal docket - and the opportunities we found to preserve civil liberties in these

dangerous times.

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

in Cyberspace

1997 was a breakthrough year for the

First Amendment in cyberspace. In

response to an ACLU challenge, in June

the U.S. Supreme Court struck down

the Communications Decency Act

(CDA) ina resounding victory for First

Amendment rights. The high court

upheld a Court of Appeals decision

which stated, "As the most participatory

form of mass speech yet developed, the

Internet deserves the highest protection

from governmental intrusion."

The suit, ACLU v. Reno, was filed

in federal district court shortly after

Congress passed the law in 1996. It

was brought on behalf of a score of

individuals and organizations that pro-

vide information via

PROTECTING FREEDOM OF

EXPRESSION

On work to protect freedom of expression took

place in many arenas in 1997 - from cyberspace

to the local Farmers' Market in Davis. Our liti-

gation protected the free speech rights of doctors

and patients who wished to discuss medical mari-

juana without the threat of federal prosecution,

journalists attempting to cover San Quentin exe-

cutions without restrictions and teachers who

allowed their students to ask questions about les-

bians and gay men.

the Internet. The suit challenged the

law which would have criminalized

free speech on the Internet, making it

illegal to send or post anything consid-

ered "indecent," if the information

would be available to minors.

LiBRARY FILTERING SOFTWARE

Asserting that the use of filtering

software at public libraries is funda-

mentally inconsistent with the role of a

library as a neutral storehouse of infor-

mation and in violation of freedom of

expression, the ACLU-NC has been

actively opposing the use of these sys-

tems in California.

In September, we were part of

strong opposition - including the City ~

Librarian - that persuaded the San

Jose City Council to reject a measure

that would have restricted children in

the city's libraries to computers with

filtering software.

At a public hearing on the propos-

al, the ACLU argued that filtering soft-

ware blocks a wide spectrum of speech,

including sites that may, for example,

provide life-saving information about

safe sex practices, abortion, resources

designed to help gay and lesbian teens,

as well as information about human

rights abuses, such as the use of rape

and sexual torture as tools of political

repression.

The ACLU-NC also succeeded in

opening up the Internet to Kern

County library users. After the ACLU

threatened to file suit, the Kern County

Board of Supervisors agreed to drop

mandatory filters for minors. The coun-

ty's new policy provides a choice

between filtered and unfiltered comput-

ers for both adult and minor patrons.

Kern County now joins libraries in

Santa Clara County and San Jose,

among others which have rejected

attempts to make libraries censors

rather than providers of information.

Staff attorney Ann Brick, who has

taken the lead on protecting freedom of

expression in cyberspace, states that

web-sites accessed from a library's com-

puter are just like the books on a

library's shelves, and the Constitution

prevents the government from censor-

ing either one.

RESTRICTING iMAGES

In yet another challenge to censorship

on the Internet, the ACLU-NC and the

national ACLU in October filed an

amicus brief in an appeal from a deci-

sion upholding the 1996 Child

Pornography Protection Act (CPPA),

which criminalizes publication

or transmission of non-

obscene images that

"appear to" portray chil-

dren involved in sexual

acts, even if the materials

- looking adults or computer

generated images. In

August, the U.S.

District Court upheld

the law.

The ACLU argues

that the CPPA criminal-

izes non-obscene materi-

als that do not involve

the participation of

minors. These materi-

als may well have seri-

ous literary, artistic,

political or scientific

value yet the language

used in the law restricts

writers, filmmakers and

other artists from even

using young-looking adults in their

work.

Talking about

Medical Marijuana

In May, the U.S. District Court issued

a preliminary injunction barring the

government from punishing doctors

who recommend the medical use of

marijuana to their patients. The

court's ruling in Conant v. McCaffrey

came in response to a class action law-

suit filed in January by the ACLU and

others on behalf of doctors and chroni-

cally ill patients suffering from AIDS,

cancer and other serious illnesses.

The Compassionate Use Act,

Proposition 215, was passed by 56% of

California voters in November 1996;

the new law provides immunity

for the possession or cultivation

of marijuana for a specific

group of seriously ill people

who use it on the recom-

mendation or approval of

their physician. However,

following the election, the

Drug Czar for the Clinton

adminstration, along

with Attorney General

Janet Reno and other

Cabinet leaders, threat-

ened to prosecute or

revoke the prescription

drug licenses of doctors

who recommended med-

ical marijuana to their

patients.

The lawsuit was filed to

stop the government from car-

rying out its threats. The lead

plaintiff, Dr. Marcus Conant, an

internationally renowned AIDS

specialist, argued that medical mari-

- juana worked "where other drugs

were produced using young-

fail...scores of studies support [this]

observation."

In issuing the preliminary injunc-

tion, the court ruled that "the govern-

ment's fear that frank dialogue

between physicians and patients about

medical marijuana might foster drug

use...does not justify infringing on

First Amendment freedoms."

The injunction will remain in

place while the remaining issues in the

case, including the plaintiffs' request

for a permanent injunction, are litigat-

ed. Under the order, doctors may dis-

cuss and recommend the medical use

of marijuana but cannot help patients

obtain the drug.

Witnessing

Executions

In December, the Ninth Circuit Court

of Appeals heard the ACLU argue that

when the state shields lethal gas execu-

tion procedures from the view of jour-

nalists and other witnesses it violates

the First Amendment.

The hearing in California First

Amendment Coalition v. Department of

Corrections, resulted from the

Department of Corrections appeal of a

District Court injunction barring |

prison officials from restricting jour-

nalists' access to San Quentin's lethal

injection executions.

In 1996, when William Bonin

became the first person in California to

be executed by lethal injection,

reporters and other witnesses to his

execution were prevented by prison

officials from observing the complete

execution procedure. Unable to offer

first-hand accounts of the entire

process, including the difficulties

prison officials admitted they encoun-

tered in inserting the IV needles, the

journalists could not thoroughly

inform the public on the state execu-

tion. Thus, the public had to rely sole-

ly on prison officials for information

about how the death penalty is being

implemented by this new method of

execution.

Following the execution, the ACLU

filed suit on behalf of journalists, news

organizations and First Amendment

advocates, asking the court to issue an

immediate injunction to prevent the

prison from imposing the restrictions

during subsequent executions.

In February, 1997, the

District Court issued the

injunction, ruling that

public witnesses -

including the media

- have a constitu-

tionally protected

right to observe

executions and

that there was

no evidence

that media

presence jeop-

ardizes prison

security or

the safety of

prison person-

nel ihe

Department of

Corrections

appealed.

The San

Quentin procedure,

the ACLU argues,

intentionally prevents

the witnesses from observ-

ing critical parts of the execu-

tion process and conceals from

public view actual and potential problems

in execution procedures. Therefore,

these policies and practices impede demo-

cratic discussion of the death penalty and

its implementation.

Rick ROCAMORA

Open Meetings

The California Supreme Court in July

refused a request by Governor Pete

Wilson and the U.C. Board of

Regents to dismiss

Molloy v. Regents of

the

issues in

unfair and dras-

tic welfare

University of California, a lawsuit

brought by a student reporter for the

U.C. Santa Barbara campus newspaper

charging the Governor and some

Regents with violating the state's Open

Meeting Act when they eliminated affir-

mative action in the university system

in 1995.

The suit, filed by the ACLU affili-

ates of Northern and Southern

California and the First Amendment

Project, charges that prior to the public

meeting at which the Regents abolished

affirmative action in admissions and -

employment at the University of

California, Governor Wilson initiated

private telephone conversations with a

majority of the Regents for the purpose

of obtaining a promise to vote in favor

of the resolutions, violating the Bagley-

Keene Act, which states that "all meet-

ings of a state body shall be open and

public."

Expression in the

Classroom

The ACLU-NC successfully represented

teachers in San Francisco and Alameda

who were threatened with having

their credentials revoked

because they allowed dis-

cussions about les-

bian and gay

issues. The chapters are:

Kensington Chapter

regula-

lobby elected officials and

speak to the media on civil liberties

Berkeley-Albany-Richmond-

1997 ACLU-NC ANNUAL REPORT

their classrooms. (For more complete dis-

cussion, see Rights of Students and

Teachers).

Marketplace of ideas

The ACLU-NC legal staff supported the

Yolo County Chapter's successful opposi-

tion to the city of Davis's attempt to

restrict political activity in the Farmers'

Market. The city wanted to impose a

"Market Socio-Political Activity Rule,"

whereby the Market Manager could pro-

hibit vendors from soliciting votes, finan-

cial support, or campaign efforts for any

political group without prior consent. In

addition, vendors would only be allowed

to wear clothing with "non-confronta-

tional expressions." Though threatened

with suspension from the market for not

complying with these "No-Speech Zone"

rules, the market vendors fought back

successfully and the Davis Farmers'

Market is now also a true

marketplace of ideas.

with a special presen-

tation from National ACLU

Field Coordinator, Bob Kearney

on Inside the Beltway: A

Report from Washington DC.

Bit oF RicHts Day

The Celebration, entitled "Oh

Freedom: A History of Struggle" was

held at the Sheraton Palace in San

Francisco in December. Our 1997 Ear!

Warren Award honoree was longtime

activist Frank Wilkinson, founder and

Executive Director of the National

Coalition against Repressive legisla-

tion. Wilkinson was honored for his

ie

ACLU-NC's_ innova-

tive Field program was

established in 1981 to involve

members in outreach, education,

grassroots lobbying and mobilization

on the most urgent civil liberties

issues of the day. The Field

Department is ready to mobilize

members quickly on whatever issues

arise: we began the year by success-

fully lobbying key congressional rep-

resentatives to defeat a proposed flag

amendment and a ban on late-term

abortion.

The Field Committee chose as pri-

orities Affirmative Action (post-Prop.

209) and Poverty/Welfare. Throughout

the year, ACLU member activists

worked in their communities to sup-

port local efforts to keep equal oppor-

tunity for women and people of color

and to monitor the impact of the new

welfare legislation on the civil liberties

of the poor.

ORGANIZING

The Field Department assists chapters

by providing materials, speakers

training, board orientation training

and chapter development. This year

we organized a Welfare Summit to

bring together chapter activists, leg-

islative experts and civil liberties

advocates to explain the impact of

welfare reform on civil liberties. More

than forty chapter activists left the

summit with materials, enthusiasm

and a commitment to lobby against

tions.

In the spring the Field Depart-

ment co-sponsored a Speakers

Training with the Friedman Project

on "How to Speak on Behalf of the

ACLU." Thirty activists took their

newly-acquired knowledge and

speaking skills to community groups,

college classrooms and _ public

forums.

Our Lobby Day in Sacramento in

March drew activists from the San

Earl Warren Chapter (Oakland

area)

Fresno Chapter

Lesbian and Gay Rights Chapter

Marin Chapter

Mid-Peninsula Chapter

Monterey County Chapter

North Peninsula Chapter

Redwood Chapter

Sacramento Chapter

San Francisco Chapter

Santa Clara Valley Chapter

Santa Cruz Chapter

Francisco, North Peninsula, Mid-

Peninsula, San Joaquin, Sonoma and

Earl Warren chapters for a morning

briefing on pending civil liberties leg-

islation, including the Omnibus Civil

Rights bill and prenatal care for

immigrant women, and an afternoon

of meetings with individual legisla-

tors.

CHAPTERS

The ACLU's all-volunteer chapters are

the activist arm of the organization as

well as civil liberties watchdogs in

their communities. These geographi-

cally-based chapters and_ the

Lesbian/Gay Rights Chapter organize

events, educate their communities

through public forums and debates,

San Joaquin Chapter

Sonoma Chapter

Yolo Chapter

Activist CONFERENCE

"Justice in Action," this year's annual

membership conference held at

Sonoma State University in August

brought together more than 150

members and volunteer activists

from northern California to strategize

and educate themselves at work-

shops on topics such as the Top Ten

Censored News Stories, Dare to Work

Against Police Brutality and Why Race

Still Matters: New Directions in the

Fight for Equality. Plenaries explored

the subjects of Poverty and Civil

Liberties, and key federal legislation

work to abolish the House Un--

American Activities Committee and

his continuing struggle to protect

and defend the First Amendment.

The event also featured an address on

the aftermath of Proposition 209 and

its effect on race relations in America

by keynote speaker Christopher

Edley, founder of Harvard University's

Civil Rights Project and advisor to

President Clinton's Race Commission.

The Lola Hanzel Advocacy Award

was given to a longtime North

Peninsula Chapter leader and Field

Committee activist Marlene De

Lancie, who has played a major role

in campaigns for reproductive rights

and abolition of the death penalty.

One of the most popular portions

of the Celebration was the San

Francisco Chapter's High School

Freedom of Expression Art Show and

Award Presentation, which drew hun-

dreds of students who contributed

poetry, painting, music and short sto-

ries on civil liberties themes.

Locat ACLU PRESENCE

The Field Department is staffed by

Field Representative Lisa Maldonado

and Program Secretary - Rini

Chakraborty. Outstanding leadership

is provided by Field Committee Chair

Michelle Welsh. The willingness to be |

a strong presence for civil liberties in

their local community and the com-

mitment and dedication shown by

the chapter board members, activists

and Field Committee members helps

to protect the civil liberties of all and

ensures the strength of this organiza-

tion and its future.