LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The following statement is from Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California:

It gives me great pleasure and pride to announce that Hector Villagra has been appointed as the new legal director of the ACLU of Southern California. Hector truly embodies what the ACLU/SC is all about: he combines agile and incisive legal thinking with deep compassion, tenaciousness and an unswerving dedication to the causes of civil liberties and civil rights.

Hector joined the ACLU/SC five years ago and quickly built an impressive record in civil rights litigation as the director of our Orange County office. In one case that drew attention nationwide, he was a lead attorney in a lawsuit that forced an Orange County high school that had cancelled a production of the musical “Rent” to provide mandatory training on sexual discrimination and harassment to teachers, administrators and students. The lawsuit settlement also provided for an apology by school district officials to a female student who was subjected to despicable threats of violence as a result of a sexist and homophobic atmosphere that was allowed to flourish at the school.

Hector won dismissal of a lawsuit aimed at getting rid of the LAPD’s Special Order 40, which prohibits officers from using immigration status to initiate investigations. Special Order 40 helps encourage immigrants to provide information to police and is a key crime-fighting tool. He also settled a lawsuit against San Bernardino County that won the right for Muslim women to wear head scarves in jail. And under his leadership, the Orange County office won a legal victory that enabled a Buddhist congregation to move forward with building a new temple after a dispute with the city of Garden Grove over unconstitutional enforcement of its zoning regulations.

Hector graduated from Columbia University School of Law in 1994, and like so many law students who later become accomplished attorneys, clerked for two distinguished judges: Chief Justice Robert N. Wilentz of the New Jersey Supreme Court, and the Hon. Stephen J. Reinhardt of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Not long after that, Hector joined the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund as a staff attorney. He was later promoted to the position of regional counsel, supervising MALDEF’s legal office for California, Arizona and Nevada, and serving as its lead counsel. Bilingual in English and Spanish, he has helped strengthen the ACLU/SC’s ties to the rapidly growing Latino community of Southern California, and we look for him to continue that important work in the years ahead.

As legal director, Hector’s responsibilities include supervising the ACLU/SC’s talented legal staff and overseeing all casework. He also will continue to direct our Orange County office. Meanwhile, legal director Mark Rosenbaum has been promoted to the position of chief counsel for the ACLU/SC, where he takes on new responsibilities, including the key task of developing strategies for complex litigation that often stems from high-profile, fast-moving events in the government and public arenas. Peter Eliasberg will continue both his outstanding legal work and his administrative oversight of the legal department’s day-to-day operations as the ACLU/SC’s managing attorney and Manheim Family Attorney for First Amendment Rights.

On Feb. 2, MALDEF, the ACLU of Southern California and the National Day Laborer’s Organizing Network (NDLON) announced a lawsuit challenging the City of Costa Mesa’s anti-solicitation ordinance as unconstitutional.

The civil rights groups filed the lawsuit against the City of Costa Mesa on behalf of the Asociacion de Jornaleros de Costa Mesa and the Colectivo Tonantzin, whose members have been restricted from peaceably expressing their need and availability for employment in the city’s public areas due to the ordinance.

MALDEF President and General Counsel Thomas A. Saenz said, “Free speech, one of our most cherished rights, belongs to everyone in society. Day laborers seeking work have as much right to express themselves as the largest corporation employing hundreds of thousands. Costa Mesa’s anti-solicitation ordinance violates this vital and longstanding constitutional principle.”

The city’s anti-solicitation ordinance prohibits any person standing on a sidewalk or other public area from soliciting employment, business or contributions in any manner deemed to be intended to attract the attention of traveling vehicles. The ordinance subjects day laborers and other solicitors to a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment up to six months. The ordinance violates the day laborers’ First and Fourteenth amendments rights under the United States Constitution.

“This ordinance is simply illegal. Not only does it discriminate against day laborers but it prohibits protected speech. It’s so sweeping that it bans school children from holding car wash signs on the street or could prevent struggling businesses from using sign spinners,” said Belinda Escobosa Helzer, staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California.

Federal courts throughout the country have consistently stricken down anti-solicitation ordinances, and have ruled in favor of preserving the free speech rights of day laborers, which allows them to continue to solicit work and provide for their families.

“Day laborers have contributed to the Costa Mesa economy for decades,” said Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. He continued, “Particularly during these tough times, the hard work they provide the community should be rewarded and not the target of destructive law enforcement practices.”

The plaintiffs, Asociacion de Jornaleros de Costa Mesa and the Colectivo Tonantzin, are represented by attorneys Saenz and Gladys Limon of MALDEF, and Escobosa Helzer, Hector O. Villagra and Peter J. Eliasberg of the ACLU of Southern California. They are joined by co-counsel, Chris Newman of NDLON.

The ACLU of Southern California is the Southland's premier defender of civil liberties and civil rights. Founded in 1923, we defend freedom and the constitutional rights of all through lobbying, litigation and education.

Founded in 1968, MALDEF is the nation’s leading Latino legal civil rights organization. Often described as the “law firm of the Latino community,” MALDEF promotes social change through advocacy, communications, community education, and litigation in the areas of education, employment, immigrant rights, and political access. Click here for more information on MALDEF.