The ACLU of Southern California condemned the U.S. Senate for caving in to Bush Administration pressure to authorize wiretapping Americans' phone calls without warrants and to give telecommunications companies immunity from lawsuits over their role in spying.
Senate voted 68-29 for legislation amending and, in the end, gutting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The bill now goes to the House of Representatives, which passed a bill that contains no immunity and stricter wiretapping protections. A final bill is due on Saturday, February 16, the expiration date of last year's disastrous Protect America Act.
The ACLU and civil liberties groups have filed more than 40 lawsuits nationwide. The ACLU/SC sued AT&T and Verizon in 2006 on behalf of 17 individual plaintiffs and more than 100,000 ACLU members statewide for violating customer privacy and the Constitution by giving the U.S. government access to call data without a warrant.
"If Congress and the telecoms collude to kill these cases, we will never learn the truth about the Bush Administration's spying programs or hold companies accountable for breaking the law," said ACLU/SC Executive Director Ramona Ripston. "Whether it is violating customers' trust or breaking health and safety laws, this sends a message that companies can ignore the law with impunity then expect Congress to rewrite the Constitution."
ACLU/SC members made phone calls and sent faxes to California's Sen. Dianne Feinstein asking her not to support telecom immunity. She and Sen. Barbara Boxer voted against the final bill.

Last October, L.A. County Sheriff's deputies entered a popular L.A. community college and stopped every African American student they found, searching their schoolbags and holding many for more than an hour. Now students who experienced the roundup at L.A. Trade-Technical College near downtown L.A. are speaking out about how it affected them.

"Each time I see a sheriff on campus, it reminds me of what happened," said Darrin Simington, one of the students who was searched. "The fear that we experienced on October 17 is the same fear we feel today."

A report by the community college district said the searches constituted racial profiling, yet the Sheriff's Department has stated that deputies did nothing wrong. The ACLU/SC and the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP have filed a claim against the Sheriff's Department over the incident.

"The sheriffs' actions took us back to the bad old days, when police believed they could stop and harass persons based on skin color," said Catherine Lhamon, ACLU of Southern California Racial Justice Director.

Vicente Rosales, a Latino student who witnessed the roundup, was also stopped by deputies when he attempted to film the incident on his cellphone. "Where was my freedom of speech when I needed it most?" he asked. Video Rosales posted on YouTube shows deputies standing over African American students as other students look on. Sheriffs said they were investigating drug sales on campus, but sheriffs found no evidence any of the students stopped were involved.

Longtime L.A. Trade-Tech faculty member Richard Wells, who coaches the men's basketball team, tried to intervene with sheriffs on behalf of several of his players but was turned away by deputies. Wells said he was "shocked and hurt." He added: "What I witnessed was something I thought I'd never see, when a college campus turned into the streets."

L.A. Trade-Tech is the city's oldest community college with a racially diverse student body and a rich history in the city's African American community. Last week Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke at the school.

Photos: L.A. Trade-Tech basketball players Steven Brown and Robert Summers (top) were among 33 African American students searched on campus in October 2007 by L.A. sheriffs. Fellow student Vicente Rosales (below) was detained by sheriffs when he stopped to film the incident with his phone.

LOS ANGELES - The ACLU/SC and the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP have filed a claim for damages on behalf of African American community college students stopped and searched by police on the basis of their race.

On Oct. 17, 2007, 14 Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies walked onto the campus of Los Angeles Trade Technical College (L.A. Trade-Tech) and detained 33 black students and one Latino student who attempted to take pictures of the incident. The male students were searched and the entire group, which included four women, was forced to sit on the ground in the middle of campus with their hands behind their heads for 45 minutes to well over an hour. They were harassed by the deputies and humiliated in front of their faculty, administrators, and fellow students but never told why they were being treated like criminals.

While Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials say the action was part of a search for illegal drug dealing on campus, an investigation conducted by the Los Angeles Community College District, which oversees the school, concluded that the student roundup constituted racial profiling.

'The sheriffs' actions took us back to the bad old days, when police believed they could stop and harass persons based on skin color,' said Catherine Lhamon, racial justice director of the ACLU/SC. 'Through this action, we hope to bring the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department into the twentieth century, and have them repudiate rank racial profiling.'

The complaint states that deputies were rude and threatening to students. Several of the students who were stopped are basketball players for the school, but their coach was turned away by deputies when he attempted to intervene on their behalf.

'Having everybody walk past you while you are being searched by the police makes you look like you're up to no good, but the opposite is true. I'm just trying to go to school; I don't want to be treated like a criminal,' said Robert Summers, one of the detained L.A. Trade-Tech students.

L.A. Trade-Tech is the city's oldest community college with a racially diverse student body and a rich history in the city's African American community. Last week Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke at the school.