vol. 64, no. 4

Wo.tume LXIV

Landmark Case Challenges Pervasive

Substandard Conditions in Schools

n May 17, on the 46th anniversary

of Brown v. Board of Education,

civil rights groups and attorneys in

California filed a landmark lawsuit charg-

ing the state of California with violating

students' rights by not. providing the bare

minimum necessities required for an edu-

cation. The historic class-action lawsuit

was filed in San Francisco Superior Court

on behalf of students in eighteen schools

located throughout California.

The lawsuit, Williams v. State of

California charges the state with having

reneged on the state constitutional

requirement to provide all students with

at least the bare essentials necessary for

an education. The suit also charges

California with having violated state and

federal requirements that equal access to

public education be provided without

regard to race, color, or national origin.

The suit was filed on behalf of more

than 60 students from elementary and

high schools throughout the state.

Plaintiffs have been subjected to the

following conditions as part of their

everyday educational experience:

LACK OF MATERIALS AND BASIC

RESOURCES

e no textbooks or other educationally

necessary curricular material

outdated or defaced textbooks

no or not enough basic school supplies

no access to a library

no or not enough access to computers

or computer instruction

no or not enough labs

no or not enough lab materials

no access to music or art classes

no or too few guidance counselors

INADEQUATE INSTRUCTION

e as few as 13% teachers with full teach-

ing credentials

e chronically unfilled teacher vacancies

e heavy reliance on substitute teachers

e no homework assignments due to lack

of materials

MASSIVE OVERCROWDING

e classes without enough seats and

desks, so students sit on counters

(c) cramped, makeshift classrooms

e multi-track schedules that curtail the

calendar length of courses

e multi-track schedules that prevent

continuous, year-to-year study in a giv-

en subject

e multi-track schedules that force stu-

dents to take key exams before com-

pleting the full course of study

DEGRADED, UNHEALTHFUL

FACILITIES AND CONDITIONS

e broken or nonexistent air conditioning

or heating systems; extremely hot or

cold classrooms

e toilets that don't flush; toilets that are

filthy with urine, excrement, or blood

e toilets that are locked

e lack of working water foundations

e unrepaired, hazardous facilities, includ-

ing broken windows, walls, and ceilings

Inside: New Era in Fight Against the Death Penalty

NEWSPAPER OF THE AMERICAN Civil LIBERTIES UNION OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Non-Profit

Organization

US Postage

PAID

Permit No, 4424

San Francisco, CA

Jury - Aucust 2000

said Michelle Alexander,

Director of the ACLU-NC

Racial Justice Project.

"How can we expect stu-

dents to do their best,

when the schools are

doing their worst? The

fault lies with the State of

California, which has for

years abdicated its respon-

sibility to ensure that

every child receives an

equal and adequate edu-

cation."

The lawsuit charges

that thousands of

California's school chil-

dren are forced to study in

"overcrowded, unsafe,

poorly ventilated buildings

with terrible slum condi-

tions." These conditions

include infestation of cock-

MELISSA SCHWARTZ

Student plaintiff Eliezer Williams, 7th grader at Luther

Burbank Middle School in San Francisco, and his father

Sweetie Williams, at the ACLU press conference. Eliezer's :

school is infested with vermin and roaches, two of the three roaches, rats, and mice,

bathrooms are locked all day, every day, and children are toilets that back up or leak,

afraid to play in the gym because they are worried that the faucets that do not work,

cracked ceiling tiles will fall on them during games. and lack of air conditioning

and/or heat, leaving chil-

dren in a constant sweat in

e vermin infestations temperatures of 90 degrees and above or

@ leaky roofs and mold | with a persistent chill so severe that they

"These are schools where students can't have to wear coats, hats, and gloves in the

possibly learn, and teachers can't teach," | classroom.

"Education is the key to providing

equal opportunity to children of all back-

grounds," said Matthew Kreeger, of

Morrison and Foerster. "Our current system

of public education is failing to serve this

purpose. This lawsuit aims to establish

that the ultimate responsibility for ensur-

ing that children receive the basic tools for

education falls upon the State of

California."

Continued on page 4

ACLU Leader Dick

Criley Dies at 88

MICHAEL MILLER

After a lifetime of activism for

social justice and peace, Dick

Criley died on June 18 at his home

in Carmel Highlands. For a look

at his remarkable life, see page 4.

See page 2

Sea Change in Public View of Death Penalty

BY DoroTHY EHRLICH AND

ELAINE ELINSON

~y everend Joseph Garlic, seated on

the dais next to presidential candi-

date George W. Bush at a religious .

gathering in Elizabeth, New Jersey in July,

turned to the Texas Governor and said he

had to ask a. sensitive question. "It is one I

could not live with myself if did not ask or

bring up. It's about Gary Graham."

Gary Graham was executed on June 22

in Huntsville, Texas. Graham's execution,

the 135th execution in Texas since George

W. Bush has been Governor, galvanized

both national and international activists

against the death penalty. Graham was a

17- year old when charged with murder, an

indigent African-American teenager. Like

the majority of people on Death Row, he

was poor, he was a person of color, and he

lacked adequate legal counsel. Despite

national protests, Graham was never

allowed to prove his likely innocence.

That the question of the death penalty

is dogging both presidential candidates -

not only from street protests but from the

dais - indicates just how widespread the

serious public debate about the ultimate

sentence has become.

Recent revelations of the persistent

fallibility of the death penalty have had an

extraordinary impact on the public's view

of capital punishment.

In California, opposition to the death

penalty has doubled. A June California

Field Poll, a group that has been tracking

public sentiment about the death penalty

since 1956, reveals opposition has gone

from a low of 14% in 1986 to a high of 30%.

Even more surprising is the news that by a

margin of 4 to 1 Californians favor imposing

a moratorium on capital punishment until

a study of its fairness can be carried out.

ILLINOIS GOVERNOR'S MORATORIUM

Gary Graham's execution shocked a nation

whose conscience had already been awak-

ened to the possibility of innocent people

EIOLD "CHE WATE!

Bill of Rights Day

Celebration

BSRG ART RHU SHH RHRAT RHF R HBR DB RHE ARERHHRRRERRATE

DPESHFRHHRR HEHE

-Numerous studies, including one by the

U.S. General Accounting Office,

overwhelmingly conclude that race,

ethnic origin and economic status are

the key determinants in who gets

sentenced to death.

"new DNA evidence.

Earl Warren Civil

Liberties Award

Bryan A.

Stevenson

being executed by the dramatic decision

in January by Illinois Governor George

Ryan, a Republican and a supporter of the

death penalty, to impose a moratorium on

any further executions in his state. Since

_ 1977, 138 condemned prisoners had been

- released from Illinois's Death Row because

they had been found innocent based on

Governor Ryan's

action created a sea change in the political

climate for the death penalty. Sixteen

states are now considering a moratorium.

The New Hampshire Legislature passed a

bill to outlaw the death penalty once and

for all, the first successful legislation to

repeal the death penalty since its reinstitu-

tion in 1972. Senator Russ Feingold and

Representative Jesse Jackson have intro-

duced legislation in Congress for a national

moratorium.

What does this mean for California?

More than 560 men and women await

execution in California, the largest Death

Row in the nation. Approximately one-

third of them currently lack any legal rep-

resentation.

SERIOUS ERRORS IN CALIFORNIA

A recent Columbia University study found

that 87% of the 531 death penalty cases dis-

posed of by California trial courts between

1976 and 1995 were reversed or remanded

for new trials by appellate and federal

courts because of serious errors. The

California statistics were part of a national

study, "A Broken System: Error Rates in

Capital Cases," by Professor James

Liebman of Columbia University.

California's rate of serious error in death

penalty cases is far above the national

average, where, Liebman found, two out of |

three convictions were overturned on

appeal, mostly because of serious errors by

defense attorneys or because of police and

prosecutorial misconduct.

Kven more disturbing is the fact that

the Liebman study ends in 1995, prior to

the passage of the federal. Habeas Corpus

Reform Act. That law speeds up the death

penalty process and, ironically, reduces

the opportunity that courts have to look for

these errors, thus exacerbating an already

unfair system of justice.

According to Death Penalty Focus, at

least five men convicted of capital murder

in California were subsequently found to

be wrongly accused and released from

prison. In the most recent instance,

Dwayne McKinney , convicted in 1982, was

released in January of this year - spending

almost two decades in prison for a.crime

he did not commit.

Governor Gray Davis has given no indi-

cation that this new information has

changed his heart or mind on capital pun-

ishment. Unlike Governor Ryan, Davis

says he is convinced that that California's

process is fair.

FEDERAL EXECUTION POSTPONED

Yet this time, it may be Gray Davis, and

not the abolitionist movement, who is out

of synch. On July 7, just weeks after the

outrage over the execution of Gary

Graham in Texas, President Clinton

announced he was postponing the first |

federal execution in 40 years, thatofJuan |

Raul Garza scheduled for August 5,

because of concerns about racial disparity

as well as a lack of federal clemency pro-

cedures. There will be no federal execu-

tions until the Department of Justice

issues its report on whether racial minori-

ties are more likely to face the federal

death penalty. The Justice Department

report is due out this summer, but numer-

ous recent studies, including one by the

U.S. General Accounting Office, already

overwhelmingly conclude that race, eth- |

key determinants in who gets sentenced

to death.

Both Al Gore and George Bush oe

the death penalty, but in the presidential

campaign, and throughout the nation,

politicians are now scrambling for ways to

restore faith in a broken criminal justice

system. Ironically, having successfully

convinced the public for so long that the

death penalty was an effective crime -

fighting tool, many politicians are now try-

ing to figure out how to respond to the

dramatic change in public attitude. They

are being asked to reckon for a system that

has been exposed as grossly arbitrary, rid-

dled with racial bias and unable to insure

that innocent people are not wrongly being

~ sentenced to death.

This is a crucial time to take action.

Opponents of the death penalty, who have

been laboring in lonely vineyards for years,

must step up our efforts.

: NEW LEGISLATION

The ACLU is supporting a new DNA testing

bill based on the Illinois legislation. The

bill, SB 13842, by Senator John Burton and

Minority Leader Scott Baugh (R-

Huntington Beach) would permit convict-

ed persons to file a motion requesting DNA

testing under certain conditions. The ~

inmate's request would be allowed if either

the evidence or the technology was not.

available at the time of trial and the identi-

ty of the person who committed the crime

was a significant issue. [See Sacramento |

Report, page 5 |

. At the same time, the ACLU is organiz-

ing support for the federal "Innocence

Protection Act," (S. 2690/H.R. 4167 ) intro-

duced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), a

former prosecutor, and Representatives.

Ray LaHood (R-IL) and William Delahunt

(D-MA). The bill seeks stronger guaran-

tees of adequate legal help for capital

defendants and provides for DNA testing of

inmates who seek to prove they did not

commit the underlying crime for which they

were condemned to die. Supporters of the

legislation note that since 1976, more than

80 Americans sentenced to death have been

exonerated and freed, sometimes within

days of their scheduled execution.

The often lonely battle against the

death penalty appears to have turned a

corner. As the public begins to lose faith in

a flawed and unjust system, it will be the

responsibility of the ACLU and other oppo-

nents of the death penalty to continue to

expose its fallibility and to press for alter-

natives . It is an opportunity that has not

presented itself for nearly three decades,

and we must pursue it with vigor and

tenacity.

Dorothy Ehrlich 1s Executive Director -

and Elaine Elinson is Public Information

Director of the ACLU of Northern

Founder and Executive Director of

the Equal Justice Initiative and

prominent death penalty attorney

nic origin and economic status are the California.

BORGORGERER DHE ED VRGOREORE ORE RHE RHH RH BRT OTF ORG ORE RHE ERE RLHH RHR RH RAH RRG HRS E

Sunday, December 10

2:00-5:00PM

The Argent Hotel, San Francisco

BREET HE RHE RK SHH SHH READER EER AERA ER HER KOSHER EDT E DHE REE RAE DH SRKORKOREREE REED HET

Lola Hanzel Courageous Advocacy Award

Grover Dye

ACLU-NC Paul Robeson Care activist

ERS HAE RAS L ASR HORE HORE DEE ORE HOHE HHS SHE RH OREORE ORE ORE DRED BERKEL SOR HOSE OREO R STORER

Photo Exhibit: "Don't Kill For Me" by Murder Victim's

Families for Reconciliation

Performance: Alma Music of the Americas

BERBERG ERG RRGE ARG RHYRHEAHEHBARGRRGRHERSHEARERHRHRHREHR REEREARERHDEEDHRRREDHEERRBE

For more information and Gas please contact

Field Director Lisa Maldonado 415-621-2493

ACLU News =" Juty-Aucust 2000 = Pace? .

he ACLU of Northern California and

[Te national ACLU filed a friend of

the court brief endorsing the right of

Ken Hamidi, a former Intel employee, to

send e-mail critical of his former employer

to Intel employees. Over a two-year period,

Hamidi.sent six e-mails to the Intel work-

force and told recipients that he would

remove them from his mailing list upon

request - a pledge he has honored.

"This case is about the right of a former

employee to criticize a large and powerful

corporation," said ACLU-NC staff attorney

Ann Brick. "E-mail is the electronic ver-

SOHOHHSSHHSHSHHSHHHSHSHHHOHHSHHHSHSHHHSHHHHSHHHSHHSHHHHSHHHHSHHHHHSHSHHHHSHHHHHSHHSHHHHHHHHHHHHSHSHHHSHCHHESSESO

Speech, ACLU Charges

sion of a protestor's picket sign or leaflet.

It has quickly become the preferred means

of communication for millions of people

across the country and around the world.

The First Amendment protects Hamidi's

right to use e-mail to reach his intended

audience at the place where that audience

can best be found."

Frustrated at not being able to block

Hamidi's e-mails technologically, Intel

sought a court injunction in October 1998.

The company claimed that Hamidi's e-

mails were "trespassing" on its equipment.

In June of last year the court issued an

order prohibiting Hamidi from sending

unsolicited e-mails to addresses on Intel's

computer system.

The ACLU brief, filed with the Third

District Court of Appeal in Sacramento,

contends that the injunction violates the

First Amendment and that Intel's "tres-

pass" theory does not apply in a situation

like this one. The ACLU argues that there

can be no liability under the doctrine of

trespass to personal property because the

e-mails caused no damage to or disruption

of Intel's e-mail system. The First

Amendment prohibits an injunction that is

ACLU Protects Free Expression and

Gay Employee in Oakland Library

by the ACLU-NC affiliate and its Paul

Robeson Chapter, the Oakland Public

Library rescinded its disciplinary action

against a lesbian employee for refusing to

take down a gay pride display in the West

Oakland branch of the Library. The

Oakland Library Advisory Commission also

approved a new policy on the removal of

items from display cases that comports

with the First Amendment, according to

ACLU-NC staff attorney Bob Kim.

The seemingly unremarkable display,

exhibited in June 1999, featured a maga-

zine cover depicting two men-one

African American and one white-kissing

l n May, after nearly a year of advocacy

and locked in an embrace. In response to a

complaint from a library patron complain-

ing about "pornography," the acting branch

director of the Library ordered the maga-

zine cover to be removed from the display

case. When the employee refused to follow

the order, a disciplinary "letter of instruc-

tion" was placed in her employee file.

This caused an outcry from members

of the Oakland community, including the

. ACLU-NC Robeson chapter. In response,

the Library Commission held a series of

public hearings. "Although the hearings

were quite heated, they did little, at first,

to address the homophobia and disrespect

for the First Amendment underlying the

Civit RIGHTS GROUPS DEMAND

Justice for Dr. Wen Ho Lee

n May 31, the Coalition Against

O Racial and Ethnic Scapegoating

(CARES) held a news conference

at the ACLU-NC office in San Francisco to

demand the freedom of Dr. Wen Ho Lee, a |.

sixty-year-old Chinese American scientist, |

who faces life in prison and has been held

in solitary confinement since December

1999 for mishandling classified informa-

tion. The coalition grew out of a growing

concern by civil rights organizations and

business and civic leaders over what many

view as a government witch hunt against

Asian Americans. In contrast to Dr. Lee's

harsh punishment, John Deutch, the for-

mer CIA director, and several others who

committed similar or worse violations have

not been prosecuted, the groups noted.

"Portraying all Asian Americans as

potential security risks in the face of polit-

ical tensions with China smacks of the

wartime hysteria that led to the imprison-

ment of loyal Japanese American men,

women, and children during World War II,"

said ACLU-NC Executive Director Dorothy

Ehrlich.

Helen Zia, author of "Asian American

Dreams," also drew the parallels to World

War II as well as the Cold War era. "That

was a dark and dangerous time for this

nation, and let us be very clear: we are per-

ilously close today to one of those times,

when politics and spy hysteria are being

used to keep Dr. Wen Ho Lee in prison," Zia

said.

Dr. Lee has been charged with mishan-

dling restrictive nuclear data at the Los

Alamos National Laboratory, where he-had

been an employee for over 20 years.

Despite a lengthy investigation involving

more than 40 agents, the FBI did not pro-

duce evidence that Lee passed on classi-

fied information to foreign agents and did

not charge him with spying.

|

Author and activist Helen Zia, pictured

here at a protest at the San Francisco

Federal Building, spoke at the CARES

press conference at the ACLU office.

Dr. Lee has been in solitary confine-

ment since his arrest, denied bail, and is

shackled with leg irons and chains when

he leaves his solitary cell.

"Every American should be alarmed

when the civil liberties and rights to due

process of any persons are denied -and we

are alarmed by the presumption of disloy-

alty of Asian Americans that has led to the

criminal prosecution of Dr. Wen Ho Lee," -

said Karen Jo Koonan, national president

of the National Lawyers Guild.

The newly formed coalition includes

the Organization of Chinese Americans,

Chinese American Citizens Alliance, the

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, the

National Lawyers Guild and the ACLU of

Northern California.

"The goal of our Coalition is to ensure

that no more Asian Americans will be

treated like Dr. Lee," said Daphne Kwok, of

the Organization of Chinese Americans.

"We want to stop this discrimination, stop

the stereotyping that Asian Americans and

other people of color are somehow suspect

simply because of how we look."

ACLU News = Juty-Aucust 2660 = Pace 3

' Library's actions," charged Kim.

But on May 28, the Library Commission

voted to adopt a new display policy largely

drafted and shaped by the Robeson

Chapter and Kim. Fittingly, the con-

demned magazine cover made a reappear-

ance in a "Banned Book Week" display at

the Library.

In addition, Kim and Christine

Hwang, a staff attorney with the National

Center for Lesbian Rights, persuaded the

Oakland City Attorney's Office to intercede

in the Library employee's case, resulting in

the removal of the disciplinary letter from

her file

"This is a total victory on all counts,"

said Kim. "And it represents the best of

what staff and ACLU chapters can do when

we collaborate." None of the changes

would have happened, said Kim, without

the persistence and dedication of Robeson

chapter chairperson Louise Rothman-

Riemer, vice-chair Grover Dye, members

Judy Flum, Yani Herdes, Winona Miller,

Judge Rice, Nancy Broderick and others.

HISTORY OF CONFLICT

In September 1999, Kim wrote a letter to

Oakland City Attorney Jayne Williams:

complaining about the incident. "The

Library impermissibly abridged the First

Amendment right of members of the public

to view the gay pride display in its entirety,"

wrote Kim. "Speech cannot be suppressed

because of the viewpoint it conveys-this

is especially true in a public library, which

is a locus for free and independent inquiry .

.. the Library's censorship of a [gay pride

Court Order that Muzzles E-Mail Violates Free

based solely on Intel's objection to the con-

tent of Hamidi's messages.

"The ancient tort of `trespass to per-

sonal property was never intended to be

used as a tool to muzzle free speech," said

Christopher A. Hansen, an attorney with

the national ACLU. "Both the United

States Supreme Court and the California

Supreme Court have been very clear in say-

ing that state tort laws may not be

employed as a smokescreen for silencing

those with whom we disagree. That is what

is happening here." #

display] has had an indelible impact on the

gay and lesbian community." (c)

In November 1999, the Robeson Chapter

followed up with a letter to Terry Preston,

the Chair of the Library Advisory

Commission, demanding that steps be taken

to alleviate homophobia in the Library and

to come up with a display policy that reflects

First Amendment values. The Chapter was

ultimately successful in getting the

Commission to make several key policy rec-

ommendations to the Library staff. "We feel

proud that we empowered the Advisory

Commission to truly `act' in their proper role

as advisors to library staff-something they

had rarely, if ever, done," said Chapter Chair

Rothman-Riemer.

The next hurdle came when Oakland

City Manager Robert Bobb inserted lan-

guage into a draft policy governing library

display cases and exhibits that would have

forbidden displays that included "sexually

explicit materials that are publicly visible

to individuals under the age of 18."

Kim fired back a letter condemning

the City Manager's insertions. "The term

`sexually explicit' is too vague to adequate-

ly guard against the possibility of improper

censorship," said Kim. "What is sexually

explicit to one may not be the case to

another. Moreover, the prohibition is

impermissibly broad. It is often the case ~

that sexually explicit materials are of value

and importance both to minors and adults

and hence are protected by the First

Amendment-for example, a print of a

2

' Botticelli nude, a copy of Flaubert's

Madame Bovary, or a public health mes-

sage on safe-sex practices."

Kim and the Robeson Chapter worked

together on subsequent drafts of the

Library's display policy, which culminated

with the Commission's adoption of a policy

supported by the ACLU. @

ACLU Draws Cheers on Pride March

More than 30 people joined the ACLU contingent in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,

Transgender Pride Parade down San Francisco's Market Street on June 25. "This

was the largest and most spirited turnout we've ever had," said Field Director Lisa

Maldonado, "and we were met with radiant applause from the crowd."

Chapter members, youth activists, interns, volunteers and staff marched in the

parade on the theme "It's All About Freedom," which drew a reported 1 million

participants. The LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex ) Rights

Chapter, supported by the Field Department, organized the contingent and staffed

a booth, distributing ACLU literature to celebrants from all over the world.

Dick Criley: A Lifetime of Activism

he ACLU-NC mourns the death of

|" Dick Criley, an activist for more than

six decades and a towering civil lib-

ertarian. Criley died at age 88 on June 18 at

his home in Carmel Highlands.

Though he was born in Paris, Dick

Criley was a child of America's most demo-

cratic traditions. His ancestors include a

signer of the Declaration of Independence,

three soldiers who fought in the American

Revolution, and the only man in America to

be executed by being buried alive under

stones, a victim of the Salem witch trials of

1692. His maternal grandfather marched

with General Sherman through Georgia

and his father's parents settled in Kansas

to help make it a free state.

FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT

Criley's own activism began in the Bay

. Area. As a graduate student at UC

Berkeley in 1934, he led the first free

speech movement there, organizing a stu-

dent strike when university officials

refused to allow the noted author and

social critic Upton Sinclair to speak on

campus.

When he was denied the right to dis- :

tribute leaflets on campus, Criley turned to

the fledgling ACLU-NC for support - plant-

ing a seed for a relationship that flowered

for more than half a century.

"Dick was a leader of the generation of

activists who shaped who we are today,"

said ACLU-NC Executive Director Dorothy

Ehrlich. "His leadership, dedication and

complete adherence to principle paved the

way for us. The only way to imagine the

ACLU without Dick Criley is to believe - as

dhe did - that we can carry on the work he

lived for."

_ Criley also led the student contingent

of the successful campaign to free Tom

Mooney, a Socialist labor leader who was

framed and convicted of the Preparedness

Day bombing in San Francisco in 1916.

Criley eventually left academia and

became an organizer of the American ~

Student Union, a national movement

focused on peace and civil liberties issues,

and the Young Communist League.

Attracted by the labor movement as a pow-

erful force for social change, Criley start-

ed working as a warehouseman on the San

Francisco waterfront and joined the ILWU.

He entered the Army during World War

II to fight fascism in Europe, and ironically

found himself subpoenaed for his pre-war

activities by the Senate Subcommittee on

Internal Security while still in uniform.

Criley, who had entered as a private and

became a captain, was cited along with

Dashiell Hammett and a dozen others by

MICHAEL MILLER

"The FBI is my Boswell."

- Dick Criley

Stars and Stripes as radicals who became

officers during the war.

After the war, Criley moved to Mayor

Daley's Chicago where he became deeply

involved in local grassroots organizations

fighting racial injustice and political cor-

ruption. -

He soon found himself targeted by the

FBI, listed as one of several thousand "sub-

versives" that J. Edgar Hoover believed to

be threats to American society. In the era of

the Cold War and McCarthyism, the House

Un-American Activities Committee made

suspects out of labor organizers, progressive

activists and dissenters of all kinds.

Criley was undaunted. He went after

those who would go after him and his fel-

low organizers. In 1960 he and Frank

Wilkinson launched the National

Committee to Abolish HUAC. The fledgling

group was immediately labeled a

"Communist plot." In one of the five HUAC

hearings to which he was subpoenaed,

Criley told the Committee that his "consti-

tutional reason" for not answering their

questions was because he would not coop-

erate with the modern counterpart of the

Salem witch-hunts that had done in his

ancestor. "They told me that reason was

not constitutional enough," Criley said.

Foucut HUAC, OUTLIVED HOOVER

After fifteen years of fighting HUAC, the

House Committee was finally abolished .

Criley and Wilkinson transformed their

organization into the National Committee

Against Repressive Legislation (NCARL)

and continued to fight on against other

injustices, particularly the intrusion of

government intelligence agencies - from

the FBI to the Chicago Police Red Squad -

into the private lives of citizens. Criley

often joked that he was pleased that he

outlived J. Edgar Hoover.

He served for 17 years as. the Midwest

Regional Director of NCARL and later as its

Northern California Director. A dynamic

orator, Criley was invited to speak and

debate before hundreds of academic, reli-

gious and activist audiences throughout

the United States. His book exposing the

FBI's decades-long surveillance of

Wilkinson, The FBI and the First

Amendment, was published in 1991.

Wilkinson, currently the Executive

Director Emeritus of NCARL, said, "Dick

Criley's grasp of the forces of history, cou-

pled with his brilliant political analysis and

heartfelt identification with the working

and oppressed people, guaranteed his

decisive leadership in all social issues for

which he struggled."

Criley's activities were well document-

ed by the government. Thousands of pages

were delivered to him after he made a

Freedom of Information Act request for his

files from the FBI. The documents include

copies made from tapes of his speeches,

clippings of his letters to the editor and

many, many pages blacked out from top to

bottom. "I sometimes say the FBI is my

Boswell," Criley told the ACLU News.

In 1977, Criley moved from Chicago

back to his boyhood home in Carmel where

he immediately became involved in the

ACLU-NC. During the 1980's, he served as

the Vice-Chair of the affiliate board and

Chair of the ACLU-NC Field Committee.

He served as both Chair and volunteer

Executive Director of the Monterey County

Chapter. On May 12, he was named

Executive Director Emeritus of the

Chapter.

Field Committee Chair Michelle Welsh,

who was recruited to the Monterey

Chapter by Criley, said, "Dick Criley was

well-known as our local champion of civil

liberties. He persuaded people in power to

honor the Bill of Rights and he spurred the

powerless into action. Dick was the heart

and soul of the Monterey Chapter and our

cherished friend. "

As an ACLU leader, Criley played a key

role in numerous coalitions and campaigns

in Monterey County. He worked with the

Reproductive Rights Coalition, the

Nuclear Weapons Freeze and the Coalition

of Minority Organizations, among others.

His gentle, thundering presence helped

mobilize activists against the last decade's

divisive initiatives - the anti-immigrant

Proposition 187, the rollback of affirmative

action and the Three Strikes law.

Dick Criley was the recipient of numer-

ous honors and awards, including the 1985

Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award from the

ACLU-NC. In 1991, he was one of twenty-

three authors to be awarded by the Fund

for Free Expression; and in 1993 he was giv-

en the Baha'i Human Rights Award. He was

named as "Local Hero" and cited for his

Lifetime Achievement by the Coast Weekly

in 1995 and honored with the Stephen E.

Ross Award from the Monterey Peninsula

Chapter of the NAACP in 1998, an award of

which he was particularly proud.

Dick Criley is survived by his wife Jan

Penney, the former Chair of the ACLU

Monterey County Chapter, and four

stepchildren. A memorial service was held

on July 23 at Asilomar in Monterey. @

COHCHHSHOHSHOCHOHHHOHOHHOHHOHHHOHHOHHOHHOHHSHOHHOHHHHOHHHHOHOHOLHHHOHOHHHOHHHHHOHHHOOHHOHHOOHHOHHHOHHHOHOOHHOOOHOHOOHOOOOOLOOEEEHHEOOOHOOCE

Education Rights ...

Continued from page |

"Too many California schools have

' been allowed to fester while some of our

best minds wither on the vine," said John

Affeldt, Managing Attorney at Public

Advocates in San Francisco. "The lawsuit

holds the State accountable for ensuring

each child has the opportunity to achieve."

Teacher Shannon Carey described the

conditions at Stonehurst Elementary

School in Oakland . "This January 24, the

roof in my classroom leaked over half of my

room, ruining a great many diligently done

projects. The roof had been leaking for

years -fourteen years, in fact-and yet not

one repair was undertaken to prevent its

eventual collapse."

"At the dawn of the 21st century, thou-

sands of California public school children

still are suffering under learning condi-

tions that were appalling and unaccept-

able in the 19th century," said Catherine

Lhamon, ACLU-SC staff attorney. "These

children try to learn in schools where they

have no books, where they routinely share

space with rats and roaches, where their

of educational opportunity to their future

economic mobility and success. They're

tired of being ignored."

"At a time of unprecedented wealth in

this state, there are thousands of children

How can we expect students to do

their best, when the schools are doing

their worst?

teachers are under-prepared. The children

who attend these schools are overwhelm-

ingly poor and children of color. They are

children the State has forgotten."

Hector Villagra of the Mexican

American Legal Defense and Educational

Fund noted, "Families and teachers in all

communities - including immigrant and

economically struggling communities -

understand the fundamental importance

who attend public schools that are so

grossly inferior that the conditions simply

shock the conscience," said ACLU-NC |

Executive Director Dorothy Ehrlich.

"Denying these students basic educational

tools crushes their hopes and dreams for

college and careers. This lawsuit is a first

step toward allowing all children in

California to have a chance to reclaim

those dreams."

ACLU News = Juty-Aucust 2000 = Pace 4

The suit was filed by the ACLU affili-

ates of Northern and Southern California

and San Diego, Public Advocates, the law

firm of Morrison and Foerster, and several

other public interest legal organizations

and attorneys. and

BY VALERIE SMALL NAVARRO

ACLU LEGISLATIVE ADVOCATE

AP CoursEs - EQUAL OPPORTUNITY?

Students who do not have meaningful

access to AP courses - students in poor dis-

tricts and communities of color - are not

able to compete for admission into our

state's best universities. In addition, the

lack of pre-AP and AP courses denies them

the opportunity to obtain academic skills

needed to succeed in any post-secondary

educational institution.

In an effort to improve the situation in

California, the ACLU sought significant

changes in the Governor's bill on Advanced

Placement courses carried by Senator

Martha Escutia (D-Montebello), SB 1504.

This bill establishes the Advanced

Placement (AP) Challenge Grant Program

towards the Governor's stated goal that

every high school in California offer at least

| four AP courses by fall 2001. SB 1504 would

provide for grants of up to $30,000 annually

for a 4-year period to at least 550 high

schools to use for AP professional develop-

ment, instructional equipment and materi-

als, and other start-up costs.

We submitted comprehensive amend-

ments to address concerns that the bill -

would not adequately resolve current

inequities that poor students of color face -

in obtaining AP classes. Since the

University of California began enhancing

students" grades in Advanced Placement

(AP) classes when calculating their grade

point averages for university admission,

students' opportunities to prepare for and

take AP courses and successfully complete

AP exams have become critical

While there have been significant

changes made to the measure, we remain

concerned that the number of AP classes is

not based on the number of students at

each school. Currently, schools with fewer

than 8 AP classes would be eligible for up to

$30,000 regardless of whether there were

500 students or 2000 students at the school.

The contents of SB 1504 were convert-

ed into a budget trailer bill, which was

signed by the Governor as part of the bud-

get package.

Cru cial Votes on AP Classes, D NA

PROVING INNOCENCE THROUGH DNA

EVIDENCE

DNA testing has exonerated more than 70

inmates in the United States, including

some inmates who were condemned to

death. Yet California law still does not pro-

vide DNA testing for inmates who request it.

To remedy this lack, Senator John

Burton (D-San Francisco) and Minority

Leader Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach).

have co-authored SB 1342, a measure that

would permit convicted persons to file a

motion requesting DNA testing under cer-

tain conditions. The request would be

allowed if either the evidence or the tech-

nology was not available at the time of trail

and the identity of the person who commit-

ted the crime was a significant issue.

The advent of DNA testing raises seri-

ous concerns about the prevalence of

wrongful convictions, especially wrongful

convictions arising out of mistaken eyewit-

ness identification testimony. According to

a 1996 Department of Justice study,

Convicted by Juries, Exonerated by

Science: Case Studies of Post-Conviction

DNA Exonerations, in approximately 20-30

percent of the cases referred for DNA test-

ing, the results excluded the primary sus-

pect. Without DNA testing, many of these

individuals might have wrongfully contin-

ued to serve sentences for crimes they did

not commit. The Innocence Project run by

Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at Cardozo

Law School in New York has been over-

whelmed with hundreds of requests from

inmates asking for DNA testing to establish

theirinnocence.

The measure passed the Senate and

the Assembly Public Safety Committee; it is

pending in the Appropriations Committee.

DouBLE HELIX MEETS PRIVACY

RIGHTS

While we are fighting for convicted prison-

ers' rights to have DNA testing to prove

their innocence, we are also concerned

about the Attorney General's race to cata-

logue the DNA of persons accused, but not

convicted, of crime.

For the second year in a row, the

Attorney General is pushing a bill, AB

2814 (Assemblymember Mike Machado, D-

Post-Prop 21: The

Fight Goes On

n the wake of the passage of Proposition 21, the Juvenile Justice Initiative passed

by California voters in March, the ACLU-NC is at the forefront of the efforts to

expose and challenge the impact of this dangerous measure.

LEGAL CHALLENGE TO Prop 21 Moves

TO S. FE SUPERIOR COURT

n June 7 the ACLU-NC filed suit in

San Francisco Superior Court chal-

lenging the constitutionality of

Proposition 21 - the Juvenile Crime

Initiative passed by the voters in the March

7 election. On behalf of the League of

Women Voters of California, Children's

Advocacy Institute, and Coleman

Advocates for Children and Youth, and tax-

payer Peter Bull, the ACLU argues that

the measure "violates a core provision of

the California Constitution designed to

ensure the integrity of the electoral

process: its requirement that each initia-

tive embrace only a single subject."

ACLU-NC staff. attorney Bob Kim

explained, "Instead of embracing one

- issue, Proposition 21 - the largest crime-

related initiative in California history -

makes far-reaching changes in several

unrelated subjects." California law man-

dates that an initiative deal with only one

subject.

"In addition, Proposition 21 offends the

Elections Code by containing text different

then the initiative circulated by petition to

voters to qualify the measure for the bal-

lot," Kim argued.

Co-counsel Steven Mayer, a partner

with Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady,

Falk and Rabkin added, "The backers of the

initiative quietly tucked in provisions

amending prior voter-approved initiatives

Continued on page 6

ACLU News = Juty-Aucust 2000 = Pace 5

Linden), that would allow the Departm

of Justice to add the DNA profiles of pe

who are suspected of committin

crime to a state database. He say.

analogous to the current practice

lecting and storing fingerprints.

current law, only DNA profiles fro

who have been convicted of spec

and other violent crimes are com

the state database.

mitted a crime and DNA was left behind,

the court should be able to order (or the

person may agree) that a suspect's DNA be

tested against the crime scene evidence.

However, if someone is merely a suspect,

and indeed may be completely innocent of

any wrongdoing, he should not have genetic

information about himself or his family

added indefinitely to a state database.

In addition, although the purpose of the

database is identification of people who

have committed crimes, we are deeply con-

cerned about the dissemination of this pri-

vate information. History contains

numerous examples of unauthorized use of

data: census records were used in World War

II to round up Japanese Americans and

social security numbers are widely used for

a multitude of non-Social Security purposes.

The Senate Public Safety Committee,

Chaired by Senator John Vasconcellos (D-

Santa Clara) and the Assembly

Appropriations Committee, Chaired by

Assembly Member Carol Migden (D-San

Francisco) significantly narrowed the bill

in their respective committees.

Now the bill provides that the

Department of Justice may only add to a

state database DNA profiles from people

who have already had a preliminary hear-

ing for sex and other violent crimes, not

people merely suspected of committing a

crime. In addition, the DNA profile can

only be maintained in the database for two

years or whenever the charges are dropped

or the individual is acquitted, whichever

happens first. Finally, the DNA sample

itself (not just the profile) must also be

destroyed at that time.

The ACLU remains opposed to this

measure because it still creates a state

database containing genetic information

from people who have not been convicted of

any crime and their DNA may be searched

without probable cause. The bill has

cleared the Assembly and the Senate Public

Safety Committee and is now pending in

the Senate Appropriations Committee.

DRIVING WHILE BLACK/BROWN

The gutted measure on racial profiling, SB

66 (Kevin Murray, D-Los Angeles), which

no longer includes the crucial data collec-

tion provision, has passed the Assembly

Public Safety -and Appropriations

Committees. The ACLU and more than 30

civil rights and community groups - includ-

ing the NAACP Inc. Fund, the Mexican

American Legal Defense and Educational

Fund, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil

Rights, the United Farm Workers, and the

League of United Latin American Citizens -

- continue to oppose the measure unless

it is amended to restore the data collection

provisions originally included in SB 1389,

, collection, racial profil-

invisible to everyone except its

ates the June 16 letter. " Police

elaim that their offices do not

ial profiling have no way of

r that is true without data.

acial profiling have no way

creen, worse than no ra

billat al." = :

AS a-result of organizing and mobi

tion by the.Racial Justice: Goalition;-news-

MELISSA SCHWARTZ

United Latin American Citizens

(LULAC) at the Sacramento press con-

Jerence denouncing the dilution of the

racial profiling bill.

papers throughout the state have

editorialized against the diluted version of

the bill. The Sacramento Bee headlined

its editorial: "Redrafted bill does nothing,

should be defeated." The Mercury stated,

"{The Governor] should not sign SB66

unless it is amended to include data collec-

tion. Signing anything less would be mean-

ingless."

The ACLU is urging people to send let-

ters to Governor Davis demanding data col-

lection. In addition, If you have been a

victim of racial profiling, please call the

toll-free statewide hotline: 1-877-DWB-

STOP [1-877-392-7867] to make sure that

your story is heard. Or call the Spanish lan-

guage hotline: 1-877-PARALOS [1-877-727-

2567] For more information contact Racial

Justice Project Field Organizer Olivia

Araiza at 415/621-2493.

AG's AUTHORITY TO ENFORCE THE

Law

In response to the Rampart scandal -

where Los Angeles police officers are

alleged to have planted evidence on people

and abused them - Assembly Member

Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) is carrying.

AB 2484. Sponsored by the ACLU, this bill

provides California's Attorney General the

statutory authority to seek civil remedies

against law enforcement officials who

engage in a pattern or practice of depriving

people of their rights under the federal or

state Constitutions or statutes. This mea-

sure has passed the Assembly and the

Senate Judiciary Committee; it is pending

~ inthe Senate Appropriations Committee.

When the Legislature reconvenes on

August 7, the full Assembly will vote on the

measure; it then goes back to the Senate

where it must be voted on before the end of

the month.

Sullivan Analyzes Supreme Court Term at

Lawyers Council Luncheon

By STAN YoGi

n June 6, 25 attorneys and law pro-

O fessors who are members of the

steering committee for the ACLU

Lawyers Council gathered at Boulevard

Restaurant for the kick-off of the Lawyers

Council Fundraising Campaign and to hear

Kathleen Sullivan, Dean of the Stanford

Law School. The Lawyers Council is the

ACLU-NC Foundation's fundraising part-

nership with lawyers, law firms, and legal

scholars.

Sullivan, a Constitutional law expert and

a long-time friend of the ACLU explained

how her formative work as a lawyer, profes-

sor and scholar have been influenced by her

involvement with the ACLU.

As a means of highlighting the impor-

tance of civil liberties litigation and the

legal work of the ACLU, Sullivan analyzed

three cases with important civil liberties

(Left to right) Lawyers Council guest speaker Kathleen M. Sullivan of Stanford Law

School, Co-chair Susan Harriman, and ACLU-NC Executive Director Dorothy Ehriich

at the Lawyers Council Luncheon.

implications that at the time were pending

before the United States Supreme Court:

Stenberg v. Carhart, the Nebraska law that

banned dilation and expulsion abortions,

STAN YOGI

dubbed "partial birth abortions" by anti-

choice advocates; Boy Scouts of America v.

Dale, involving an assistant scout master

_ who was expelled because he is gay; and

Santa Fe School District v. Doe, brought by

the ACLU to challenge student-initiated

prayer before football games in Texas. In

each case, Sullivan brought an incisive

analysis and thorough run-down of the civ-

il liberties issues involved.

During the. luncheon, Dick Grosboll,

new co-chair of the Lawyers Council, paid

tribute to his fellow co-chair, Susan

Harriman of Kecker and Van Nest, who will

be stepping down from her leadership after

the completion of the fundraising cam-

paign this year. Harriman co-chaired the

Lawyers Council Campaign for the past 10

years.

Stan Yogi ts the Director of Planned

Giving and Foundation Support at the

ACLU-NC Foundation.

You've Sent Checks to the ACLU-

Prop. 21...

Continuedfrompage5

that had nothing to do with the issues that

voter were led to believe they were decid- _

ing on March 7."

The new law requires children as

young as 14 to be tried in adult courts when

accused of murder and other serious

crimes. The initiative transfers authority

from the courts to prosecutors, enacts

stricter probation rules and creates

dozens of new offenses related to gang

activity. In addition, Proposition 21 makes

changes in the three-strikes law, adds to

the list of death-penalty-eligible crimes for

adults and overhauls the juvenile court

system. :

The defendants in the lawsuit are

. Governor Gray Davis, Attorney General Bill

Lockyer, and San Francisco District

Attorney Terence Hallinan. The California

Supreme Court on May 10 declined by a vote

of 5-2 to hear the ACLU's earlier challenge

to the constitutionality of Proposition 21.

A copy of the complaint, League of

Women Voters v. California is available

online at www.aclunc.org.

ELECTION DOESN'T END YOUTH

ACTION ON Prop 21

The ACLU Youth Advisory Committee

joined other youth organizations to spon-

sor a June 22 community forum, "Session

21: Knowing Your Rights Under Prop. 21."

The coalition, which also includes HOMEY,

the Third Eye Movement, Youth Force

Coalition, and Youth Making a Change,

organized the forum to help educate and

mobilize young people following the pas-

sage and implementation of the Juvenile

Crime Initiative.

"Increasing numbers of counties are

implementing Proposition 21," explained

William Walker, fellow with the Howard A.

Friedman First Amendment Education

Project, "and until we can defeat it, we

must continue to organize so a whole gen-

eration will not be lost to these harsh, dis-

criminatory and unjust laws."

The forum at Golden Gate University

featured "Ask the System," a panel of youth

and of juvenile justice professionals

including Captain John Newlin of the San

Francisco Police Juvenile Division, Golden

Gate Law School Dean Peter Keane, and

Bill Johnston, Senior Supervising

Probation Officer of the San Francisco

Juvenile Probation Department.

In addition, discussions were held on

the juvenile justice system following Prop

21, youth rights, and next steps for the

youth movement.

"It's important that agencies under-

stand that implementing Prop 21 is target-

ing our communities unfairly. Session 21

gave youth a chance to talk to officials

directly about looking at how to implement

`Prop 21 to keep youth from-returning to

the juvenile justice system," added Walker,

an organizer of the ACLU Youth Advisory

Committee.

New STUDIES STRESS RACIAL

DISPARITY IN JUVENILE JUSTICE

SYSTEM

Several new studies have been issued in

the last six months documenting the dis-

proportionate impact of laws like

Proposition 21 on youth of color. The Color

of Justice , published by the Justice Policy

Institute found that youth of color in

California are 2.5 times more likely than

white youth to be tried as adults and 8.3

times more likely to be incarcerated by an

adult criminal court. The National Council

on Crime and Delinquency issued a report

And Justice for Some, which documents

that minority youth experience harsher

treatment than white youth at ever step of |

the juvenile justice system. In April, the

Youth Law Center reported that there is a

"cumulative disadvantage" for black and

Latino youth in the nation's criminal jus-

tice system. For example, the report

showed, a black youth is six times more

likely to be locked up than a white youth,

even when charged with a similar crime

and when neither has a prior offense.

A round-up of these terrifying statistics

was released in June by the Leadership

Conference on Civil Rights. The group's 90-

page report, Justice on Trial: Racial

Disparities in the American Criminal

Justice System, indisputably outlines that

the juvenile justice system is home to wide-

spread and consistent racial disparities.

ACLU Legislative Director Laura

Murphy, speaking at a Washington, D.C.

press conference to launch the report, not-

ed, "There can no longer be any doubt that

America's justice system is not blind. This

report from the nation's oldest, largest and

most diverse civil and human rights coali-

tion reveals that `lady justice' sees skin

color all too well. Study after study demon-

strates that minority youths are more likely

than whites to be treated as harshly as pos-

sible at each step in the criminal justice

system even when compared only to youths

of similar age, gender, offense and record.

"The consequences of the racial dis-

parities that taint the criminal justice sys-

tem - both for youth and adults - cannot be

overstated," Murphy charged. @

ACLU News = Juty- Aucust 2000 = Pace 6

Ba aera kG 4 tO Cle

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LESSONS FROM THE INTERNMENT

Panel Discussion Brings Painful History to Life

By STAN Yoel

n June 8, the same day as nation-

Oj: community protests over the

unjust imprisonment and racial pro-

filing of Wen Ho Lee (the Los Alamos

Laboratory scientist accused of espionage),

the ACLU-NC led a panel discussion enti-

tled "Protecting Our Civil Liberties:

Lessons From the Japanese American

Incarceration for Americans Today."

Panelists Mitchell Maki of the UCLA

School of Social Welfare, long-time civil

rights leader Aileen Hernandez, and jour-

nalist and activist Helen Zia shared

insights about the civil liberties lessons of

the internment based on their scholarship,

research, and political experience.

Panel moderator ACLU-NC Executive

Director Dorothy Ehrlich acknowledged

the late Ernest Besig, former ACLU-NC

director, who represented Fred Korematsu,

over the objection of the national ACLU,

and challenged the exclusion and intern-

ment of Japanese Americans all the way to

the U.S. Supreme Court. She explained

that racial justice continues to be a priori-

ty for the ACLU and, citing Wen Ho Lee,

commented about the poisonous mixture

Professor Mitch Maki, with ACL U-NC Executive Director Dorothy Ehrlich (left) and civ-

WINONA REYES

il rights leader Aileen Hernandez, said the redress movement changed the Japanese

American community's view of the internment from a social misfortune to a political

injustice.

of racial profiling and national security.

Just as during World War II, Ehrlich noted,

people are currently branded as disloyal or ~

subversive if they don't agree that national

security interests trump civil liberties.

Professor Maki, co-author of Achieving

the Impossible Dream: How Japanese

Americans Obtained Redress, explained

how key government leaders, including

Ron Dellums, Ronald Reagan, Alan

Simpson, and Norman Mineta, were

impacted during their youth by the

Court Ruling Means Abortion

Rights Safe - for Now

CLU-NG staff attorney Margaret

Crosby (left) and Planned

arenthood President Dian Harrison

spoke at a press conference on the day the

United States Supreme Court struck down

Nebraska's ban on so-called "partial-birth

abortion." Crosby warned that the narrow

victory means that "we need to make sure

that the Court stands ready to protect the

right to choose for future generations."

The high Court

| ruled in Carhart v.

Stenberg that the

state may not regu-

late abortion in a

way that endan-

gers women's

health. In addition,

the Court recog-

nized that the ban

would prohibit an

array of safe and

common: abortion

procedures and

invalidated the law

on this ground as

well. The ACLU

submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the

case, representing abortion providers in

support of Dr. Carhart. The decision means

that all state laws that have been chal-

lenged - 21 of the 31 laws - are unconsti-

tutional.

"The Court recognized the nationwide

campaign to promote these bans for what it

is: a broad attack on women's fundamental

right to determine the outcome of their own

pregnancies," said Crosby. "It is a victory for

women and their doctors because it reaf-

firms that the Constitution protects

women's childbearing decisions and health."

Noting that only five of the nine

' Supreme Court justices upheld a woman's

right to choose, Crosby said that the

"sharply divided decision demonstrates

that the right to reproductive choice is far

| from secure."

Crosby also explained California does

not have a law restricting lawful abortion

procedures, and if one were to pass, the

ACLU would challenge it as unconstitu-

tional. "California's explicit right to priva-

cy protects women's childbearing deci-

sions more broadly than the federal

Constitution," Crosby said, "and the state

could not justify intrusion into women's

autonomy under our state Constitution."

The Carhart ruling came on June 28,

at the end one of one of the Court's most

significant terms in recent memory. In

addition to striking down the ban on so-

called "partial birth" abortion, the Court

upheld restrictions on abortion clinic

protests, upheld a program of federal aid to

parochial schools, and upheld the policy

the Boy Scouts' policy of excluding gay

troop leaders.

"We are disappointed with the Dale rul-

ing because we think the Court should

have valued New Jersey's goal of eradicat-

ing anti-gay discrimination over the associ-

ational rights of the Scouts," explained

ACLU-NC staff attorney Bob Kim.

"Although we are staunch supporters of an

organization's First Amendment right to

associate - including the right to exclude

others from the group - in this case the

troop leader, simply by being gay, did not

interfere with a core expressive purpose of

the Scouts." oe

"In pursuit of what remains a largely

conservative agenda, this has become one

of the most activist Courts in American his-

tory," said ACLU national legal director

Steven R. Shapiro.

STELLA RICHARDSON

ACLU News "= Jury- Aucust 2000 = Pace 7

Japanese American internment and how

each played a role decades later in redress

legislation. He cited two critical lessons

from the internment: first, the government

cannot incarcerate people without due

process, and second, the government

should not withhold evidence, as it did dur-

ing World War II. He noted these points

should be obvious since the U.S. is a coun-

try of laws, but he added that we are also a

country run by humans prone to error.

REDRESS MOVEMENT

The redress movement, Maki said, was

a community effort that symbolized among

Japanese Americans a transition from

viewing the internment as a social misfor-

tune to understanding it as a political

injustice. He noted several lessons from

the redress movement, including the

importance of framing an issue. He

explained that redress legislation was suc-

cessful partly because it was framed as

correcting a violation of the Constitution

and consequently drew support from

unlikely allies. The redress movement was

also a lesson in dedication, he said. It took

more than two decades for activists and

legislators to pass the redress law.

LONG HISTORY OF RACISM

Labor and civil rights leader Aileen

Ce ee OO OO

Summer Interns Focus on

ACLU Cases

very semester the ACLU-NC bene-

3 fits from the skills and talents of law

students who intern with the Legal

Department. This summer's crop included

(left to right) Kara Suffredini from Boston

College Law School, Jocelyn Bramble from

Harvard Law School, Michael Chu of

Stanford Law School and Josefina Jimenez

of Hastings Law School. The law students

have worked on a wide range of ACLU

issues - from interviewing individuals who

have called the DWB hotline, to contacting

lesbians and gay men who have been sub-

jected to harassment in the Central Valley,

to researching cutting-edge legal cases on

cyberliberties and the Internet, and the

consequences for young offenders follow-

ing the implementation of Proposition 21.

Hernandez warned the audience that an

injustice like the internment could happen

again. She pointed out that the internment

was possible, in part, because of a long his-

tory of racism, including housing discrimi-

nation that ghettoized Japanese Americans

and made it easy for the government to

round up the community.

To help prevent a violation like the

internment from ever happening again, she

exhorted the audience never to be silent

about injustice and never to stop fighting

against injustice. She also explained the

significance of history and helping younger

generations understand that the U.S. has

not been a perfect society. Acknowledging

the late activist Edison Uno, who spurred

former California Governor and U.S.

Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren to say

privately that he regretted his role in the

internment, Hernandez stressed the

importance of admitting mistakes and then

doing something to correct them.

"We have an obligation to make this

country what it's said it's been all along,"

said Hernandez, a former national President

of NOW and the 1989 recipient of the ACLU-

NC Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award.

Author and activist Helen Zia focused

on the media's significant role in the

internment. Decades before World War II,

she explained, the Hearst and McClatchy

newspapers fanned racist hysteria and

suspicions against Japanese Americans,

which laid the political groundwork for

internment. She described how the cur-

rent racial profiling of Wen Ho Lee is

grounded in years of contemporary media

depictions of Asian Americans as "politi-

cally suspicious, clannish, and foreign."

OPINION MAKERS

Journalists are not merely passive

recorders of events, Zia noted, but active

trendsetters and opinion makers. She chal-

lenged the audience to be vigilant about the

media, just as we are vigilant about govern-

ment. "This vigilance is even more neces-

Conitinued on page 8

OD

Chu is the recipient of the Paine

Internship, an award named for Robert

Alexander Paine, the brother of longtime

ACLU supporter Ann Forfreedom. Robert

Paine, who changed his last name to Paine

in honor of American revolutionary Tom

Paine, died in 1979 at the age of 31 from

cancer. A conscientious objector in the

Vietnam war, an anti-draft counselor, and a

medical technician, Paine aspired to be an

attorney working for human rights and

social justice. He received his law degree

from People's College of Law in Los

Angeles just days before his death. In

1989, Forfreedom set up the fund with the

ACLU-NC to honor her brother's memory

and to support law students at the ACLU-

NC. @

Steve Morozumi

By MELISSA SCHWARTZ

grassroots organizing can be. A

member of the Santa Cruz County

chapter of the ACLU since 1995, Steve has

spent more than two decades fighting for

civil rights and social justice. Since he

began his organizing as a young man, his

experiences inspire the young people he

actively recruits to the ACLU today. "I

wantthem to be involved in understanding

and protecting their rights as well as those

of other marginalized and disenfranchised

groups," explained Morozumi, a Student

Affairs Officer at the University of

California at Santa Cruz.

Morozumi's work has spanned a wide

range of issues. He has advocated for

immigrant rights, organizing union drives

in Chinese restaurants, garment sweat-

shops and canneries. He has worked in

community coalitions to challenge police

abuse in Harlem and Newark. During the

1985-87 Watsonville strike of more than

1,000 predominantly Latina women can-

nery workers, Morozumi worked on the

Strikers' Support and Media Committees.

He helped to organize a strikers' press

conference challenging the prohibitively

high park insurance fees charged by the

city that effectively prevented the strikers'

ability to assemble.

S teve Morozumi knows how difficult

VIETNAM WAR AND CIvIL RIGHTS

"My involvement in political causes was

originally motivated by an awareness of the

Vietnam War and the growing civil and

human rights protest movements. I became

A PuBLic FORUM

Homophobia in High School -

The Legalities and the Realities (c)

Hear whatit's like for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and

questioning youth and their friends in high schools today.

Sunday, August 13th 12:00 noon

ACLU-NC office, 1663 Mission Street, #460, San Francisco

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-Kensing-

ton) Chapter Meeting: (Usually first Wednesday)

For more information, time and address of meetings, con-

tact Diana Wellum at 510/841-2069.

Chico Chapter: If you are a member in the

Chico/Redding area, please contact Steven Post-leyes at

530-345-1449.

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, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender

Chapter For more information, contact Chloe Watts at

510/763-3910 or Jeff Mittman at 510/272-9380.

Everyone is welcome to attend! ACLU members and community and

youth leaders from local schools are encouraged to attend

aware of how the Kennedy/Hoover,

Johnson and Nixon administrations tried to

stifle dissent through measures such as the

Cointelpro Program, the Smith Act and the

McCarthy era repression."

Morozumi grew up in an environment

of activism. His grandparents and father

were among the 120,000 Japanese

Americans interned in America's concen-

tration camps during WWII in spite of his

father's United States citizenship and his

grandfather's longstanding opposition to

Japanese militarism. "My grandfather was

a liberal journalist, had attended Columbia

Law School, believed strongly in the Bill of

Rights and democratic representation,"

said Morozumi. " But he and my grand-

mother and their children were still held

without due process and a trial. They were

detained in Tanforan horse stalls and sent

to a barren desert camp. Ironically they

ended up teaching classes of fellow

Marin County Chapter Meeting (Usually third

Monday) Meet at 7:30 p.m. at the Marin Senior

Coordinating Council, "Whistlestop Wheels," Caboose

Room, 930 Tamalpais Ave., San Rafael For more infor-

mation, contact Coleman Persily af 415/479-1731.

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 650/493-2437.

Monterey County Chapter Meeting: (Usually

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

more information, contact Lisa Maldonado at 415/621-

2493.

North Peninsula (San Mateo area) Chapter

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

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

Check-out our web page at: http://members.

aol.com/mpenacly. For more information, contact Marc

Fagel at 650/579-1789.

ACLU News a Juty-Avucust 2000 = Pace 8

internees about U.S. government and the

constitution in the Topaz, Utah camp in tar

paper barracks, behind barbed wire and

under gun towers."

Decades later in 1982, Morozumi's

family testified before the Congressional

Commission to investigate the Wartime

Internment and Relocation and lobbied

members of Congress for redress and repa-

rations. "The collective efforts of a revital-

ized, rearticulated Japanese American

community finally led to a formal govern-

mental apology and symbolic reparations,"

he recalled.

SANTA CRUZ CHAPTER BOARD

When Morozumi became increasingly

aware of the activist work of the ACLU in .

the local as well as national arena, he

decided to join. He became an active

member of the Santa Cruz Chapter Board

and served as its Recording Secretary and

- on the Programs Committee. For the past

two years, he has Co-chaired the board

with Bob Taren.

"Steve is the quintessential activist,"

said ACLU-NC Field Director Lisa

Maldonado. "Every time I see him he is run-

ning from one meeting to the next or orga-

nizing an action. Whenever I call him about

a civil liberties related bill or legislative alert

in Santa Cruz, I know he will activate people

to call their elected representatives."

_ He has recruited many students to the

Chapter Board as well. Last November's

Proposition 21 - the Juvenile Justice

Initiative - was a crucial issue for the

young activists. "Young people are not the

`generation X ` the media portrays them to

be, but they do need clear concrete path-

ways to harness their frustration and anger

to feel they can make a difference,"

Morozumi said.

. "Steve really inspires and challenges

the young people that he works with to

become involved in the fight for civil liber-

ties," added Maldonado.

Morozumi's work with the young ACLU

activists paid off in the election: both the

campus and the city of Santa Cruz had the.

highest percentage of votes opposing both

initiatives in the state.

He and his partner Lynn Fujiwara, who

recently received her PhD in Sociology, are

expecting their first baby in December. @

Melissa Schwartz is the Program

Assistant for the Field and Public

Information Departments of the ACLU-NC

Internment...

Continued frompage 7

sary now that the media is more closely tied

to business interests," Zia noted.

Panelists engaged in a lively and at

times emotional discussion with the audi-

ence and stressed the importance of recog-

nizing discrimination against other

communities and building alliances.

This panel discussion was held in con-

Paul Robeson Chapter Meeting (Oakland):

(Usually fourth Thursday) For more information contact

Stan Brackett at 510/832-1915.

Redwood (Humboldt County) Chapter

Meeting: (Usually every third Tuesday) Meet at Fiesta

Cafe, 850 Crescent Way, Sunnybrae, Arcata at 7:00 PM.

#For information on upcoming meeting dates and times,

please call 707/444-6595 #

Sacramento Valley Chapter Meeting: For more

information, contact Lisa Maldonado at 415/621-2493.

San Francisco Chapter Meeting: (Third Tuesday)

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

Street, Suite #460, Sanfrancisco. Call the Chapter Hotline

(979-6699) or www. SFACLU. org for further details.

Santa Clara Valley Chapter Meeting: (Usually

first Tuesday) Meet at 7:00 PM at the Peace Center, 48

S. 7th St. San Jose, CA. For further chapter information

contact Marie Crofoot at 408/286-1581.

junction with the exhibit "America's

Concentration Camps: Remembering the

Japanese American Experience," which

was organized by the Japanese American

National Museum in Los Angeles and dis-

played at the California Historical Society

between March 21 and June 17. The

ACLU-NC was one of the community spon-

sors of the exhibit, and contributed to the

display original correspondence between

former Executive Director Ernie Besig and

Fred Korematsu. @

Santa Cruz County Chapter Meeting: (Usually

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

contact Steve Morozumi, 408/459-3108.

Sonoma County Chapter Meeting; (Usually third

Tuesday) Meet at 7:00 PM at the Peace and Justice

Center, 540 Pacific Avenue, Santa Rosa. Call David

Grabill at 707/528-6839 for more information.

Yolo County Chapter Meeting: (Usually third

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

Davis. For more information, call Natalie Wormeli at

530/756-1900 or Dick Livingston at 530/753-7255.

Chapters Reorganizing

If you are interested in reviving the @Mt. Diablo

Chapter@, please contact Field Representative Lisa

Maldonado at 415/621-2006 x 46.