A judge has ruled that the Veterans Administration violated the First Amendment rights of a veteran who protested the agency’s failure to use part of its West Los Angeles property for the benefit of homeless veterans, it was reported on Friday.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles last year on behalf of Robert Rosebrock.
The 68-year-old Vietnam vet has protested the VA’s land-use policies every Sunday since 2008, along with other veterans.
During the protests, Rosebrock displays the American flag upside down on a fence outside the VA property to protest the proposed conversion of a chunk of the land to a public park.
Police demanded that he remove the flag, and when Rosebrock refused, the police took it down. Previously, VA police had allowed Rosebrock to display the flag right side up at the same site, according to the ACLU.
“Hanging the flag upside down was an important and necessary message for Mr. Rosebrock,” said Peter Eliasberg, the ACLU/SC’s legal director. “He fought to defend the First Amendment, and the court decided correctly that the very right he fought for was violated.”
U.S. District Judge S. James Otero issued his written ruling on Thursday.
A call for comment to a VA spokesman in Washington, D.C., was not immediately returned.
Eliasberg said that for 66 weeks in a row, Rosebrock hung the flag right side up without any interference from the VA police.
However, after he started hanging the flag upside down in June 2009, he was quickly cited six times for “unauthorized demonstration or service in a national cemetery or on other VA property,” according to the ACLU.
Rosebrock also received an e-mail from Lynn Carrier, associate director of the Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, which said in part that he and his fellow demonstrators “may not attach the American flag, upside down, in VA property including our perimeter gates.”
The VA eventually dismissed the citations against Rosebrock, but the action of the VA police in removing a flag that Rosebrock had hung upside down made clear the agency’s unconstitutional policy of denying him his free speech rights, Eliasberg said.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/05/27/judge-backs-war-vets-upside-do...

(LOS ANGELES)-The ACLU of Southern California announced that it has filed a lawsuit on behalf of American citizen Samy Ali, to challenge the federal government’s revocation of his wife’s visa in retaliation for his exercising the right to counsel during FBI questioning.  The case was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Ali fully cooperated with the FBI as it questioned him about his brother-in-law, who had gone missing overseas.  Ali, concerned for his brother-in-law as well as for the well-being of his sister, niece and nephew, maintained close contact with the FBI for several months.  However, despite his cooperation, the FBI agents later turned hostile, threatening Ali with the baseless accusation that he had engaged in illegal activity by accumulating credit card debt.  Shaken and disturbed by the FBI’s threats, Ali sought the advice of an attorney, who informed the FBI that she would represent Ali at any further FBI questioning.  In response, the FBI stated that they were no longer interested in speaking with Ali if he was represented. 

Several weeks later, Ali flew to Egypt to pick up his wife and young child, and return to the United States to begin a new life together.  Ali’s wife had been granted a visa and green card by United Citizenship and Immigration Services earlier that year.  However, shortly after Ali arrived, the U.S. Embassy informed him that his wife’s visa had been revoked and failed to provide any valid basis for the revocation.  Ali was forced to return home alone.  The FBI later made clear that Ali could fix his wife’s visa problems if he would cooperate further without his attorney. 

 “The government flagrantly misused its immigration authority to retaliate against Mr. Ali, who had been fully cooperating with the FBI,” said Michael Kaufman, an attorney with the ACLU of Southern California.  “Unfortunately, Mr. Ali’s case is part of a larger pattern of abusive FBI tactics that have driven a wedge between Muslim communities and law enforcement, making us all less safe.” 

Ali’s case presents the latest example of a pattern of abuse whereby the FBI misuses the immigration laws to coerce members of the Muslim community to provide information, a phenomenon documented in a recently issued report by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice entitled “Under the Radar.”  The FBI’s tactics have caused distrust between the Muslim community and the FBI throughout the country. 

“I have always considered myself a proud American, but I am now afraid and distrustful of the FBI,” said Ali.  “I tried my best to help the FBI and they repaid me with threats and separation from my wife and daughter.” 

“The government’s retaliatory revocation of his wife’s visa constitutes a clear violation of Mr. Ali’s constitutional rights,” said Geoffrey Forgione, pro bono counsel from the law firm Jones Day.  “The government should make right this egregious wrong by apologizing to Mr. Ali and his family and immediately re-issuing the visa so that the family can be reunited.” 

The law suit asks a federal court to order the government to re-issue Marwa’s visa according to law.  No monetary relief is sought.