vol. 55, no. 6 (November)
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aclu news
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Volume LV
n Sunday, December 15 - the
QO 200th birthday of the Bill of
Rights - the ACLU-NC will
honor two people who have made those
rights come alive for millions of
Americans, United States Supreme Court
Justices William Brennan and Thurgood
~ Marshall. The Justices will be granted the
Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award at the
ACLU-NC's 19th annual Bill of Rights
Day Celebration.
The Celebration will feature a "Tribute
to Freedom of Expression" _ starring
renowned artists from various fields
including poets Lawrence Ferlinghetti and
June Jordan, jazz musician Jon Jang, mod-
em dancer June Watanabe, comedienne
Marga Gomez, and the Oakland Interfaith
Gospel Choir. The keynote speaker will be
the eloquent criminal defense attorney
Tony Serra.
As Justices Brennan and Marshall will
not be able to attend the Celebration, the
entire program will be videotaped and
delivered to them with their awards.
The event, which also represents the
culmination of the ACLU-NC
Foundation's annual fundraising cam-
paigns, will be held at the St. Francis Hotel
on Union Square at 5:00 PM. (For ticket
information, see below.)
Earl Warren Award
Each year for the past eighteen years,
the Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award has
been presented to a person or persons who
have distinguished themselves as champi-
ons in the battle to preserve and expand
civil liberties.
"Justices Marshall and Brennan are sin-
gularly appropriate recipients of the
Award, for they shared not only the spirit,
but the Supreme Court bench, with Chief
Justice Earl Warren, for whom the award
is named," said ACLU-NC Chair Milton
November 1991
Tribute to Freedom of Expression
Justices Brennan and Marshall to be Honored
Justice William Brennan (I.) and Justice Thurgood Marshall
National Geographic Society
Estes.
Justices Marshall and William
Brennan sat on the United States Supreme
Court for a combined fifty-six years.
"During that time they consistently voted
to defend civil liberties, creating a body of
law that made the Supreme Court a refuge
for all Americans seeking to exercise their
rights. In honor of their tireless efforts to
enforce the letter and spirit of the Bill of
Rights, the ACLU-NC is proud to grant
these two courageous justices the Earl
Warren Civil Liberties Award in this
Bicentennial Year of the Bill of Rights,"
Estes added.
Brennan joined the Court in 1956 in
the turbulent years just following the
Brown v. Board of Education school
desegregation case. At that time, the U.S.
Constitution was not being interpreted to
protect individual privacy in issues such
Minors' Rights to
Abortion on Trial
na courtroom crowded with reporters
I and spectators, the most significant
reproductive rights trial in California
opened on October 1 before San Francisco
Superior Court Judge Maxine Chesney in
the case challenging the 1987 law requir-
ing adolescents to obtain parental consent
or a court order to obtain abortion services.
The law restricting teenagers' access to
abortion has never gone into effect
because of the lawsuit, American Academy
of Pediatrics v. Lungren, filed by ACLU-
NC staff attorney Margaret Crosby,
Abigail English of the National Center for
Youth Law, and cooperating attorneys
Linda Shostak, Lori Schechter, Annette
Carnegie and Monique van Yzerlooy of
Morrison and Foerster.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are organiza-
tions and doctors concerned with adoles-
cent health: the American Academy of
Pediatrics (District IX); the California
Medical Association; the American
College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists (District IX); Planned
Parenthood of Alameda/San Francisco;
and Philip Darney, M.D., Director of
Family Planning, San Francisco General
Hospital.
The case challenges the restrictive law
as violating the explicit right to privacy
(Article I, Sectiont1) in the California
Constitution. The suit argues that the law
infringes teenagers' right to reproductive
choice, requires the unnecessary disclo-
sure of intimate facts, and violates the
government's obligation of neutrality
between childbirth and abortion by bur-
dening only the disfavored reproductive
option of abortion.
Major risk
Shostak, who is the lead trial attorney,
told the court in her opening statement, "It
is a good thing in most cases for a teen-
ager to talk to her parents. But to compel
family harmony is not a good thing. It puts
some teens at a major risk...because not
every family is a happy family."
Shostak asked for a permanent injunc-
tion blocking enforcement of the law,
reminding the court that the Court of
Appeal had placed the burden of proof on
the state to justify the statute's infringe-
ment of fundamental privacy rights.
In October 1989, the state Court of
Appeal upheld a lower court ruling block-
ing the law until its constitutionality could
be determined. The appellate court reaf-
firmed the California Constitution's strong
protection for the right to choose abortion,
Continued on page 4
| as abortion or contraception. The First
Amendment had been weakened first by
the war years and still further by the era of
McCarthyism. The rights of the accused
were poorly formulated, and constitutional
restraints were rarely applied to the con-
duct of the government at the state and
local levels. Justice Brennan did not con-
fine himself to narrow opinions, but formu-
A Celebration
of the Bicentennial
of the Bill of Rights
Venu]
Justices Thurgood Marshall
e William Brennan
with the Earl Warren
Civil Liberties Award
(in absentia)
American Civil Liberties Union
of Northern California
1991 Bill of Rights Day
Sunday, December 15, 199] at 5pm
Refreshments e? No-Hovt Bar at 4pm
Weutin St. Francis Hotel
No. 6
lated broad tests that closely scrutinized
any restrictions on constitutional rights.
Justice Marshall joined in 1967,
appointed by President Lyndon Johnson
three years before Chief Justice Warren
retired. As the first African American to
serve on the nation's highest court, he com-
bined a valuable perspective with an out-
standing record of legal experience to
advance the civil rights of all Americans.
"Tt is a credit to the current day defend-
ers of civil liberties to have these two legal
giants as leaders of the struggle. Together,
they fulfilled the purpose of the
Constitution which is, in Brennan's words
of 1987, `the protection of the dignity of
the human being and the recognition that
every individual has fundamental rights
which government cannot deny him,"
Estes added.
Artists' Tribute
"We are especially pleased that so
many exciting artists have accepted our
invitation to pay tribute to the Justices and
to freedom of expression," said ACLU-NC
Executive Director Dorothy Ehrlich.
"These northern California artists have
helped created the rich and diverse fabric
that reflect the artistic and social values of
our community."
Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, whose
Continued on page 3
T 3
BILL. OFF
RIGHTS
1. 2 9 1
G9 9 1
Union Square
Featuring
A Tribute to
Freedom of Expression with
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
poet
Marga Gomez
(waif (
See 0)
compodel, Ata td Ts
Palitas ra
poet, essayist, political activist
Oakland eet, Gospel Choir
TROTTER
Criminal Defense Attorney
June Watanabe
modern dancer
aclu news
nov 1991
Federal Judge Rules Anti-Begging Law is Unconstitutional
Amendment, U.S. District Court
Judge William Orrick ruled on
September 25 that begging is protected
speech in the ACLU-NC case of Blair v.
Shanahan.
The decision held that the state law
which was used by San Francisco police
officers to arrest a homeless man who was
asking for help on the streets was uncon-
Stitutional. The law, California Penal
Code Section 647(c), violates the First
Amendment by prohibiting protected
speech in a public forum. The law also
violates the right to equal protection, the
court ruled, because it does not bar all who
approach others - for example, to ask the
time or directions - only those who
I nN a major victory for the First
approach to ask for help.
- "Begging can promote the very speech
values that entitle charitable appeals to
constitutional protection," Orrick wrote in
a 31-page opinion. "A request for alms
clearly conveys information regarding the
speaker's plight. Begging gives the
speaker the opportunity to spread his
views and ideas on, among other things,
the way our society treats its poor or dis-
enfranchised. And in some cases, a beg-
gar's request can change the way a listener
sees his or her relationship with and obli-
gations to the poor."
The landmark ruling was hailed by
ACLU-NC cooperating attorneys Michael
Hallerud and Robert Keyes of Pettit and
Martin and staff attorney Margaret
Crosby, who represented Celestus Blair in
the lawsuit. Blair, a formerly homeless
man, was arrested five times in 1988 and
1989 for asking people for money in San
Francisco's downtown streets. On each
occasion, the District Attorney declined to
press charges. Blair is no longer homeless
and currently works as a Muni bus driver.
"The ruling is a great victory for Mr.
Blair and for everyone who cherishes lib-
erty and cares for the needy," said Keyes.
Judge Orrick rejected the city's claim
that the law is necessary to protect the
public from intrusive conduct that is
threatening and coercive. "City streets are
a public forum, one of the few remaining
democratic spaces where the convention-
eer, the gawking tourist, the eager consu-
mer, the city resident and the needy may
mingle freely," he wrote. "The speech of
the needy around us may well be subjec-
tively felt as an unwelcome intrusion by
some, but the expressive freedom guaran-
teed by the Constitution has never been
costless."
Attorney Crosby noted that the ruling
was "a strong and principled decision that
protects the constitutional rights of the
most vulnerable people in California."
"Judge Orrick recognized that when
the homeless seek alms, they convey a
message that extreme poverty exists in the
midst of affluence; that society finds it a
disturbing message is not a justification
for silencing the poor," Crosby added.
Union City Police Stop Storing HIV Data
In response to protests from the
ACLU-NC, AIDS activists and
: public' health specialists, the
Union City Police Department has stopped
storing and disseminating information
about HIV infected persons in their com-
munity.
Police Chief Al Guzman announced
the decision after an August meeting with
ACLU-NC staff attommey Matthew Coles,
Jill Jacobs of the AIDS Project of the East
Bay, Susan Black, Director of public pol-
icy on HIV and AIDS for the Alameda
County Public Health Department and oth-
ers. "The bottom line is that they don't
need that data and we're not going to keep
that data again," Guzman said at the end of
the meeting, adding that local police offi-
cers and firefighters agreed with his deci-
sion.
Coles praised the decision and noted
that there has been a "very positive out-
come from an inauspicious beginning,"
because now the Union City police and
AIDS rights groups are working together
to make sure health authorities understand
the specific kinds of exposures the police
and firefighters face. "In addition, we are
- planning to to jointly devise policies which
will protect public safety officers from
HIV infection while also protecting the
privacy of HIV infected people," he added.
Coles noted that there is virtually no
risk of HIV transmission to a public safety
officer in the course of duty. "During this
entire epidemic, with over a million indi-
viduals infected with HIV, there has not
been a single documented case of a police
officer or other public safety officer
becoming infected with HIV on the job,"
he said.
"Moreover, by telling officers the
names of a small portion of those who are
HIV infected, rather than following the
`universal precautions' prescribed by the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control, a police
department runs the risk that the officers
will assume that they need be concerned
only about those who are identified, and
will use the precautions selectively,"
Coles added.
Coles charged that gathering the names
in police computers and broadcasting them
to officers - a practice which has cropped
up in a number of cities throughout the
United States - is a violation of the con-
stitutional right to privacy.
Public health authorities throughout
California have complained for years that
the greatest single obstacle to stopping the
spread of AIDS is the fear HIV infected
people have that the government will keep
files on them and tell others about their
condition. "The policy of gathering and
disseminating the names of HIV infected
individuals is a disservice to the officers
and to the public health," Coles charged.
The fact that the Union City police
were gathering and keeping data on HIV
infected persons came to light when a
reporter from the Fremont Argus over-
heard the information about an individual
on a police scanner. The Argus reporter
wrote that when patrol cars are dispatched,
the computer is checked, and if it shows
that an individual at the location to which
the car is being dispatched has HIV, the
officers are so informed.
In a strongly worded letter to Police
Chief Guzman, Coles had called the prac-
tice "misguided and dangerous," and
demanded that it be halted. In response to
Coles's letter, Guzman temporarily halted
the practice and set up the August meeting.
Estes Elected Board Chair
r. Milton Estes, a family physi-
D cian in Marin County who has a
long history of activism on
women's health and AIDS issues, was
elected as the new Chair of the ACLU-NC
Board of Directors. Estes, who is the first
openly gay person to be elected to this
post, has been on the Board since 1985
and previously served as the Vice-Chair.
Estes has played a key role as Chair of
the Development Committee of the
ACLU-NC. "Milton has provided out-
standing leadership to our organization
and played a major role in securing the
resources that we need to fight the current
attacks on civil liberties. He has signifi-
cantly strengthened our ability to meet the
major challenges to reproductive rights,
discrimination against people with HIV
and civil rights that we face today," said
ACLU-NC Executive Director Dorothy
Ehrlich.
Estes has a long history of serving the
ACLUers Honored
Bill Tamayo
ACLU-NC Board member Bill
Tamayo, an attomey with the Asian Law
Caucus, was honored on September 13 by
Asian Americans for Community
Involvement at their Fifth Annual
Freedom Awards Banquet.
Tamayo is chairperson of the National
Network for Immigrant and Refugee
Rights and also serves on the board of the
Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee
Rights and Services. He was honored for
his leadership work in immigrant and refu-
gee rights and his continuing efforts in the
civil rights arena.
Michael Laurence
Attorney Michael Laurence, Director
of the ACLU-NC Death Penalty Project,
was honored at the first annual awards din-
ner of Death Penalty Focus on October 19
in Los Angeles.
Laurence was honored by the statewide
abolitionist group along with Charles
Sevilla and Michael McCabe as "the legal
team whose valiant efforts have thus far
prevented the execution of Robert Harris
in San Quentin's gas chamber."
Actor Mike Farrell, a well-known acti-
vist and star of the TV series M*A*S*H,
was also awarded for his successful efforts
to prevent the execution of Virginia death
row inmate and recognized legal scholar
Joe Giarratano. The keynote speaker of
the evening was Sam Reese Sheppard, the
son of Dr. Sam Sheppard who was wrong-
fully convicted and subsequently exoner-
ated of his wife's murder, who is active in
SOLACE, an organization that provides
support to the families of murder victims.
Death Penalty Focus was formed in
1988 as a nonprofit organization dedicated
to the abolition of capital punishment.
Among the members of its Advisory
Committee are former California Supreme
Court Justice Joseph Grodin, former
Govemor Pat Brown, actor Danny Glover
and Joan Baez.
affiliate in many capacities. He has been
the Chair of the Marin County Chapter,
Chair of the Nominating Committee and
the Officer Nominating Committee. He
also served on the committee to develop
the ACLU-NC AIDS policy, the Staff
Salaries and Benefits Committee, and
numerous ad hoc policy and organizational
committees.
Estes, a family practitioner in Mill
Valley and an Associate Professor of
Obstetrics and Gynecology at _ the
University of.California, has an extensive
history of activism around the issues of
allocation of health resources and women's
health issues. He is the primary provider
for HIV positive patients in Marin County
and has helped develop both the AIDS
Response Plan and a publicly funded clinic
for HIV positive patients in Marin.
Estes was named Physician of the Year
in 1989 by the Marin Medical Society and
honored by the Marin Chapter of the
ACLU with its Benjamin Dreyfus Award.
He also serves as Chair of the Marin
Medical Society AIDS Committee, as a
member of the editorial board of BIRTH -
Issues in Perinatal Care and Education,
Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights,
Physicians for Social Responsibility, and
the Community Consortium, a Bay Area
organization of health care providers for
HIV infected people.
A 1968 graduate of the University of
Chicago Medical School, Estes was the
Medical Director of the Orange Cove
Family Health Center, a federally funded
clinic serving farmworkers in_ rural
California.
Other newly elected Board officers
include U.C. Santa Clara law professor
Margaret Russell, Chair of the Legal
Committee; Fran. Strauss, Chair of the
Development Committee; Joanne Lewis,
Chair. of the Field Committee; Anne
Jennings, Chair of the Legislative
Committee; and Tom Lockard, Treasurer.
Estes replaces former Board Chir H.
Lee Halterman, counsel to Representative
Ron Dellums, who will continue as a
Board member.
aclu news
8 issues a year, monthly except bi-monthly in January-February, June-July, August-
September and October/November.
Published by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California
H. Lee Halterman, Chairperson
Dorothy Ehrlich, Executive Director
Elaine Elinson, Editor
Marcia Gallo, Field Page
ZesTop Publishing, Design and Production
1663 Mission St., 4th Floor
San Francisco, California 94103
(415) 621-2488
Membership $20 and up, of which 50 cents is for a subscription to theaclu news and 50
cents is for the national ACLU bi-monthly publication, Civil Liberties.
Seip
oan strates
Ge x
aclu news
nov 1991 3
Freedom of Expression ...
Continued from page I
book of poetry A Coney Island of the
Mind has sold almost a million copies and
influenced generations of Americans, is
also co-founder of San Francisco's
City Lights Books and continues to be
its principal owner and editor. Long .
associated with the :
San. .--s"erraicisco
Renaissance and the
"Beat Generation,"
Ferlinghetti is com
mitted as both poet and citizen to the
vision of American community that was
Walt Whitman's.
Jazz musician Jon Jang is the com-
poser of "Reparations Now!" which is fea-
tured on the Pan Asian Arkestra's debut
recording Never Give Up. His current
work, "Tienanmen" will feature guest art-
ist Liu Qi Chao and will premiere in June
1992 for the third anniversary of the
Tienanmen massacre. Jang, whose works
have been commissioned by the National
Endowment for the Arts, the Ford
Foundation and Max Roach, is also a sub-
ject of KQED-TV's "Creative Mind" doc-
umentary series.
June Jordan, a poet, essayist, play-
wright and political activist, has been
called "one of the world's most articulate
and essential voices." The author of 19
books, she is the most published African-
American writer in history. Her latest,
Naming Our Destiny, appeared to critical
and popular acclaim in 1989. Her work
has been anthologized in virtually every
major anthology of contemporary poetry
and her articles have appeared in publica-
tions ranging from Mademoiselle and
Essence to The New York Times. She is
currently a Professor of
African American
Studies and Women's
Studies at the University of
California at Berkeley.
The Oakland Interfaith
Gospel Choir, directed by
Terrance Kelly, is an award-
winning choir. The 55-
member, multi-racial, multi-
cultural group has sung
throughout the United
States.
Modem dancer,
teacher and choreogra-
pher June Watanabe is
the artistic director of
her own company
and a professor of
dance at Mills
College. An award-
winning dancer, who
Dancer June Watanabe
Arne Folkdal
has also been the
subject of KQED-
TV's "Creative
Mind" series, Wata-
nabe's solo and epic
works, intuitive and
personal, reflect the
Japanese American cul-
ture and themes of wom-
anhood.
Marga Gomez, comic,
actress and writer, was
voted the Entertainer of the
Year at the San Francisco
Cable Car Awards in 1989 and
1990. She has appeared on public
television's Comedy Tonight and
numerous comedy clubs; her one
woman show "Memory Tricks", the
story of her showgirl mom, received
wide acclaim when it debuted in 1991.
The Bill of Rights Day Celebration
will be held at the St. Francis Hotel on
Union Square in San Francisco on
Sunday, December 15. The program
will begin at 5:00 PM with a no-host bar
and reception at 4:00 PM. The hotel is
wheelchair accessible and ASL sign
interpretation will be provided. Tickets
are $15.00 and .$8.00 (for low-income/ |
seniors/students).
To order tickets, please send a check
and a self-addressed stamped envelope
to:
Bill of Rights Day Celebration
ACLU-NC
1663 Mission Street, #460
San Francisco 94103 or
call Field Representative Nancy Otto
at 415/621-2493.
English Only Workplace Rule Struck Down
by Ahsan Janoo
District Court Judge Robert Schnacke
ruled on October 4 that a San
Francisco meat processing company's rule
requiring its employees to speak only
English at work violates federal law. The
first decision by a federal judge concern-
- ing English-only rules in the workplace,
this ruling arrives amidst a proliferation of
such rules at worksites in California and
around the country.
I a ground-breaking decision, U.S.
The lawsuit (Garcia v. Spun Steak)
was filed on behalf of two Spanish-
speaking women workers at the Spun
Steak Company of South San Francisco
by Ed. Chen of the- ACEU-NC
Christopher Ho of the Employment Law
Center of the Legal Aid Society of San
Francisco and cooperating attorneys
William Orrick and Ruben Iniguez of the
San Francisco law firm of Coblentz,
Cahen, McCabe and Breyer.
Judge Schnacke declared that the com-
pany had violated Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 by forcing its employ-
ees to speak English only at work. Title
VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits
discrimination in employment on the basis
of national origin, race, sex, color and
religion.
The court's decision was preceded by a
similar rendering from the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC), responsible for enforcing Title
VII, when it investigated a complaint filed
by the attorneys on behalf of the two
Latino workers, Maricela Buitrago and
Priscilla Garcia, against the company. The
workers had been disciplined by a super-
visor for speaking Spanish on the job.
The company, however, did not
rescind its English-only policy after the
EEOC determination. The lawsuit, filed
on June 26, sought an injunction from the
court to halt the discriminatory policy.
After hearing oral arguments, Judge
Schnacke made his ruling from the bench,
rejecting the meat company's justification
for the language rule because it did not
demonstrate any neutral business neces-
sity, the only criterion under federal regu-
lation which can justify English-only
rules in the workplace. He stated that the
company's supposed attempt to control
racial disharmony by imposing a factory-
wide language restriction amounted to
"overkill." Less restrictive alternatives
were available, he added.
The factory workers' jobs involve tak-
ing frozen meat products from conveyor
belts and packing them into boxes for
wholesale distribution. Plaintiff Garcia
said, "There is no reason from any busi-
ness standpoint, safety-related or other-
wise, why such a rule is needed."
Cooperating attomey Iniguez noted
that the decision will ensure that employ-
ers reconsider any language restrictions
they place on their workers. "It serves to
put employers on notice that in order to
comply with the law, the courts will
require them to have business justification
for their policies," Iniguez said.
The ACLU-NC has fought English-
only rules at worksites throughout
California. In 1989, the EEOC deter-
mined, in response to a complaint filed by
Chen on behalf of hospital workers at the
University of California at San Francisco,
that the English-only policy of the
University was unlawful. According to
Chen, the significance of the court's ruling
lies in the fact that it is the first ruling on
English-only workplace rules by a
_ California federal judge.
The California Legislature recently
passed a bill by Senator Marks (SB 834)
to restrict the usage of English-only rules
in the workplace. The bill was vetoed by
Governor Wilson on October 12. Calling
the Governor's action "unfortunate,"
cooperating attorney Orrick explained that
"the bill would would have had the effect
of clarifying what the state regulations
already are, which is that English-only
rules are discriminatory, absent business
necessity."
Ahsan Janoo is an intern in the Public
Information Department.
Challenge Gift Boosts Fall Fund Campaign
by Cheri Bryant
_ACLU-NC Development Director
r | 1 he ACLU-NC Foundation kicked-
off its annual Major Gifts
Campaign on October 10 in the
midst of the Thomas confirmation hear-
ings and everyone was acutely aware of
the need for the ACLU's work in these
threatening times. With issues of police
brutality and curtailment of reproductive
rights on the minds of many ACLU mem-
bers, Campaign volunteers agreed that
there is much to discuss with donors dur-
ing the fall fundraising effort.
"The Campaign is structured as a way
to reach out to our friends and update
them on the current work of the ACLU,"
explained Fran Strauss, Chair of the
Development Committee. "Of course, we
want our donors to renew their support.
But what is even more important, we want
to hear from them, and we want to let
them know what our priorities are."
Fifty fundraising volunteers will be |
meeting with more than 200 prospective _
supporters over the next few months.as a
part of the Campaign. They are organized
into five teams, each with a team captain:
Dick Grosboll, Lee Halterman, Davis
Riemer,
Young. The goal for the Fall fundraising
effort is $383,000.
"This. year we are very fortunate to
John Rutherford and Julius ~
$360,0000x2122
- $330,000
L$ 300,000
$270,000
$240,000
$210,000
$180,000,
$150,000"
$1 20,0094
oe
$90,000,
ty
yy Yin;
Y?
have a Challenge Gift that will help to
boost support at the Founders Circle level
of the Campaign," said Milton Estes,
newly elected Board Chair.
Estes explained that the Challenge
Gift, offered by a generous donor, means
that the ACLU will receive a dollar match
to any donor who. makes a new gift, or
increases their support, in the $2,500 -
$10,000 range. All of the gift, not just the
increase, will be matched by the anony-
mous donor, up to a total of $35,000.
"We expect this to be an attractive
incentive to some of our loyal supporters
at the $1,000 level and above," Estes said.
"The donor of the Challenge Gift wants to
remain anonymous, but I can say that the
donor is a longtime ACLU supporter who
is very concerned about the current cli-
mate, in the courts and generally, of hos-
tility towards civil liberties. Through this
gift, the donor is expressing that concern
and encouraging philanthropic activism as
a means to move forward in the struggle
to preserve civil liberties.
"This gift, and all gifts to the
Campaign, are especially significant in
this, the 200th Anniversary of the Bill of
Rights. There is much to celebrate in that
anniversary, yet our donors recognize that .
there is still such a long way to go until
the guarantees enumerated in that docu-
ment are fully realized for all Americans,"
he added.
For more information about the
Challenge Gift or the Campaign, call
Cheri Bryant at 621-2493.
aclu news
nov 1991
Teachers Conference Inaugurates
ACLU-NC Friedman Project
n September 21, educators and
students from throughout the Bay
Area joined ACLU-NC staff,
Board members, and friends at the inaugu-
ral conference of the the new Howard A.
Friedman First Amendment Education
Project.
"Teaching the First Amendment in the
Bicentennial Year" brought together attor-
neys, teachers, and education activists for
a day of discussion on the history and cur-
rent status of First Amendment rights,
with special emphasis on their application
to high school students. One panel,
"Diversity and Conflict," featured five
high school teachers who have developed
programs to deal with an increasingly
diverse student population and the impor-
tance of freedom of expression in chal-
lenging racism, sexism, homophobia, and
class bias.
Each participant received a binder full
of materials on First Amendment issues.
A special section, entitled "Teaching the
Firs. Amendment to High School
Students: Curriculum Ideas, Activities,
and Strategies for English and Social
Studies Teachers" was written for confer-
ence attendees by Education Project chair
Dale Brodsky, a civil rights attomey spe-
cializing in employment discrimination
who is now in the process of becoming a
high school teacher.
Conference participants were wel-
comed by ACLU-NC Executive Director
Dorothy M. Ehrlich; sessions were mod-
erated by Education Project chair Brodsky
and Marcia Gallo, the Project's director.
Law, Resources and Student Life
The day began with a session on the
development of First Amendment law,
presented by Ann Brick, ACLU-NC staff
attorney and advisor to the Education
Project. Beverly Tucker, ACLU-NC
Board member and Chief Counsel with the
California Teachers' Association, dis-
cussed the differences between state and
federal constitutional law. A session on
current First Amendment issues in the
schools featured ACLU-NC staff attorney
Alan Schlosser on dress codes, Brick on
book banning and Brodsky on school
prayer.
"Diversity and Conflict - Programs
Designed to Promote Debate, Discussion,
and Understanding Among High School
Students," featured a lively discussion by
local high school teachers and activists,
including Rob Birle, spokesperson for the
Bay Area Network of Gay and Lesbian
Educators; Joyce Hawkins and Ken
Obeso, Ethnic Studies teachers at
Berkeley High School; Effie Pandell, vet-
eran San Francisco social studies and
Street Law instructor at Washington High
School; and Stan Pesick, Skyline High
School social studies teacher in Oakland.
A nuts-and-bolts session on "Sources
and Resources" was presented by M.
Anne Jennings, ACLU-NC Board mem-
ber, environmental lawyer, and former
high school teacher, who gave tips on
doing legal research; and Dan Nealand,
Assistant Director with the National
Archives, Pacific Sierra Region, who
spoke on the use of original documents in
teaching.
Inaugural Reception
Following the Conference, participants
joined members of the Howard A.
Friedman family, San Francisco Superior
Court Judge Donna Hitchens, and ACLU-
NC Board Chair Milton Estes at a recep-
tion to inaugurate the Project. Family
leader Phyllis Friedman painted a vivid
verbal picture of her late husband's vision
of civil rights and civil liberties, and
expressed her family's pleasure in the
development of the Howard A. Friedman
First Amendment Education Project.
"Thanks a million,' wrote a teacher
from Berkeley. "I'm using the Freedom of
Religion materials right now and sharing
them with colleagues...feeling more confi-
dent in dealing with these issues and their
complexity thanks to your workshop and
`the superior, easy to use materials you
have produced."
The next event of the Howard A.
Friedman First Amendment Education
Project is a Students' Conference, "SAY
WHAT??!! Students Celebrate
Freedom of Expression," on December
11 at San Francisco State University. A
Students' Advisory Committee is being
organized to help plan the conference.
For more information on the Project,
the Student Conference or the Students'
Advisory Committee, contact Marcia
Gallo at 415/621-2493.
Minors Rights ...
Continued from page I
and held that in California the state may
burden the procreative choices of adoles-
cent women only if it proves that the
restriction is necessary to achieve a com-
pelling public interest.
Plaintiffs contend that laws mandating
adult authorization for teenagers' abortions
rest on generalizations about family life
and adolescent behavior that are empiri-
cally unsupported.
"The real issue here is whether stereo-
typic assumptions - for example, that all
parents can and will provide helpful coun-
sel to their pregnant daughters or that teen-
agers make rash or uninformed decisions
about pregnancy - can justify infringing
teenagers' fundamental rights of procrea-
tive choice and privacy," said Shostak.
At the trial, counselors, medical person-
nel and judges from states where parental
consent or notification laws are in effect
have testified about the disastrous effect of
such laws on the physical, mental and emo-
tional health of teenagers who are forced to
confront unsympathetic parents or navigate
a formidable judicial system to obtain a
court order for abortion. Paula Wendt,
Director of the Meadowbrook Women's
Clinic in Minnesota, testified about the
judicial bypass process, the role of clinics
in the process and the detrimental impact
on the health and welfare of minors in her
state, where a similar law is in effect.
Physicians, psychologists, trained coun-
selors, and sociologists have testified about
California's current system for ensuring
informed consent.
Dr. Anita Nelson, an _ obstetrician-
gynecologist at the Harbor UCLA Medical
_Center and director of seven county family
planning clinics in Los Angeles, testified
about the counseling practices and proce-
dures for teenagers who find themselves
pregnant. She spoke movingly of runaway-
teenagers, girls from undocumented fami-
lies, and teens from homes where parents
have many mental or substance abuse
problems who, in addition to medical help,
look to the clinics for information, support
and confidentiality. "As a doctor, I am
trained to do no harm," she said, adding
that great harm would be done to teens if
they were forced to tell their parents or a
judge about a pregnancy or abortion.
"For many years, California law has
allowed minors to consent to specific med-
ical services in order to encourage them to
seek care for conditions-such as preg-
nancy and sexually transmitted disease-
that, without medical treatment, would
jeopardize their health," said English.
National significance
California's lawsuit has become espe-
cially significant in light of the United
States Supreme Court's 1990 decisions in
Hodgson v. Minnesota and Ohio v. Akron
Center for Reproductive Health, upholding
parental notification statutes in Minnesota
and Ohio.
"California has a pioneering history in
its state constitutional protection for repro-
ductive choice," said Crosby.
"For over 20 years, California courts
have recognized a fundamental right to
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-
Kensington) Chapter Meeting: (Usually
fourth Thursday) Volunteers needed for the
chapter hotline -- call Florence Piliavin at
415/848-5195 for further details. For more
information, time and address of meetings,
contact Julie Houk, 415/848-4752.
Earl Warren (Oakland/Alameda County)
Chapter Meeting: (Usually second
Wednesday) Meetings on Wednesday,
November 13 and December 11. The Earl
Warren Chapter is sponsoring a high school
essay contest this fall. For time and
address of meetings, please call Irv
Kermish, 415/836-4036 or Abe Feinberg,
415/451-1122.
Fresno Chapter Meeting: (Usually third
Monday) Meeting on Monday, November
18 and December 16 at San Joaquin Law
School. New members always welcome!
For more information, call Nadya Coleman
at 209/229-7178 (days) or A.J. Kruth at
209/432-1483 (evenings). ;
Gay Rights Chapter Meeting: (Usually
first Thursday) Meet Thursday, November
7 and December 5 at the ACLU Office,
1663 Mission, 460, San Francisco at 7:00
PM. Volunteers welcome to mailing party on
November 5, starting at 5:30 PM. For more
information, contact Teresa Friend, 415/
272-9700.
Marin County Chapter Meeting: (Third
Monday) Meet Monday, November 18 and
December 16 at 7:30 PM, Westamerica
Bank, East Blithedale and Sunnyside
Avenues, Mill Valley. For more informa-
tion, contact Harvey Dinerstein, 415/381-
6129.
Mid-Peninsula (Palo Alto area) Chapter
Meeting: (Usually first Thursday) Annual
Meeting and Dinner on Wednesday,
November 6 at 6:30 PM at the Holiday Inn,
Palo Alto. Dinner and Reception with guest
speaker PC pioneer and publisher and
ACLU-NC Board member David Bunnell
on Computers and Technology:
Implications On Civil Liberties For The
Next Generation. ACLU-NC Executive
Director Dorothy Ehrlich and Friedman
Education Project Director Marcia Gallo
will also speak; Admission is $20 - $30.
Meeting on Thursday, December 5. New
members welcome! For more information,
contact Harry Anisgard, 415/856-9186 or
call the Chapter Hotline at 415/328-0732.
Monterey County Chapter Meeting:
(Usually first Tuesday) Meetings on
Tuesday, December 3 at 7:30 PM at the
Monterey Library, Community Room,
Pacific and Madison Streets, Monterey. For
more information, contact Richard Criley,
408/624-7562.
Mt. Diablo (Contra Costa County)
Chapter Meeting: (Usually fourth
Thursday) For more information, contact
Mildred Starkie, 415/934-0557.
North Peninsula (San Mateo area)
Chapter Meeting: (Usually third Monday)
Meet Monday, November 18 and December
16. at 7:30 PM at the offices of Planned
Parenthood, 2211 Palm Avenue, San Mateo.
Note: The North Pen Chapter has a new
Hotline number: 579-1789. For more
Field Program Monthly
Meetings
information, contact Emily Skolnick at 340-
9834.
North Valley (Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehema, and
Trinity Counties) Chapter Meeting:
(Usually fourth Wednesday) For more
information contact Frank Treadway, 916/
365-4336 or 916/241-7725.
Sacramento Valley Chapter Meeting:
(Usually second Wednesday) Meet
Wednesday, November 13 and December 11
at 7:00 PM at Hearing Room 1, Sacramento
County Offices, 700 H Street. For more
information, contact Ruth Ordas, 916/488-
9956
San Francisco Chapter Meeting: (Usually
third Monday) Meet Wednesday, November
18 and December 16 7:00 PM. at ACLU
office, 1663 Mission, 460, San Francisco.
For more information, call the Chapter
Information Line at 415/979-6699.
Santa Clara Valley Chapter Meeting:
(Usually first Tuesday) Meet Tuesday,
November 5 and December 3 at 7:00 PM at
the Commerce Bank Building, 111 West St.
John Street, 2nd Floor Conference Room,
San Jose. Contact John Holly, 408/554-
9478, for further information.
Santa Cruz County Chapter Meeting:
(Usually second Wednesday) Board meeting
on Wednesday, December 11. The Santa
Cruz Chapter will have its Annual
Meeting on Wednesday, December 4 at the
Louden Nelson Community Center.
Featured speaker will be Margaret Pena,
ACLU-NC Legislative Director. Chapter
will continue to work on combating Hate
Crimes. Contact Keith Lesar, 408/688-1666,
for further information.
Sonoma County Chapter Meeting: (Third
Thursday of the month) Meet Thursday,
November 21 and December 19 at 7:30 PM,
821 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa. All mem-
bers welcome. Contact Len Bronstein at
707/527-9018
Yolo County Chapter Meeting: (Third
Thursday of the month) The Yolo County
Chapter will co-sponsor a panel on Hate
Speech on Wednesday, November 20 at the
Jewish Fellowship Building. Regular meet-
ing on Thursday, December 19. For more
information, contact Alan Bronstein at 916/
752-2586.
Field Action
Meetings
(All meetings except those noted will be held
at the ACLU-NC Office, 1663 Mission
Street, Suite 460, San Francisco.)
Student Outreach Committee: (Usually
third Saturday) Contact Marcia Gallo, at
ACLU-NC 415/621(c)2493.
Civil Rights Committee: (Fourth Saturday)
Meeting on Saturday, November 23 from
10:00 AM to 11:30 AM. No meeting in
December. RSVP to Nancy Otto at the
ACLU-NC 415/621-2493.
First Amendment Committee: (Fourth
Saturday) Meeting on Saturday, November
23 from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM. No meeting
in December. RSVP to Nancy Otto at the
ACLU-NC 415/621-2493.
Pro-Choice Action Campaign: Contact
Nancy Otto at the ACLU-NC 415/621-2493.
choose abortion that is both independent of
Roe v. Wade and more encompassing than
the federal constitutional guarantee," she
said.
With the departure of Justices Brennan
and Marshall from the United States
- Supreme Court, and federal constitutional
protection for the right to choose in serious
jeopardy, pro-choice attorneys are hoping
that American Academy of Pediatrics v.
Lungren will become an important prece-
dent that continues California's leadership
in state constitutional protection for repro-
ductive rights. The case is being closely
watched because 41 states have similar
parental involvement laws; about twenty
are in effect, the remainder are under court
injunction.
"The challenged law would tum back
the clock more than twenty years on
California adolescents' right of access to
reproductive health care with disastrous
effects on their health and welfare," said
English.
"SAY WHAT? ?!!..."
Students Celebrating
Freedom of Expression
Conference
Wed, December 11
9:00 A.M. TO 2:00 P.M.
(Lunch included)
San Francisco State University
Guest Center
South State Drive and Lake Merced Blvd.
San Francisco
FREE to high school juniors and seniors
(other students may apply)
TO REGISTER: Call Marcia Gallo at
415/621-2493. Everyone must register by
November 23, 1991. The Conference is free,
but limited to 300 people - so call today!