LOS ANGELES - In a strong ruling in favor of religious liberty, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals maintained that the California prison system's ban on long hair for male prisoners violated the religious freedom of a former inmate, who is Native American.

A three-judge panel reversed a lower court decision and held that the California Department of Corrections had failed to demonstrate that the restriction on hair length was necessary to security, especially with respect to a prisoner in a minimum security facility.

"This is a great victory for religious freedom," said Peter Eliasberg, the ACLU of Southern California's Manheim Attorney for First Amendment Rights. "The Ninth Circuit recognized that the Department of Corrections cannot rely on unsubstantiated fears to prevent prisoners from abiding by their deeply held religious beliefs."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, together with the law firm of Bingham McCutchen, originally filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Billy Soza Warsoldier, a Cahuilla Native American, after learning that he was being penalized for practicing his religion, a central tenet of which is the prohibition of cutting his hair except upon the death of a loved one. While held in the Adelanto Community Correctional Facility in Adelanto, California, Warsoldier was denied visitation rights and other privileges for refusing to comply with the Department of Corrections' grooming policy, which stipulates that male inmates must keep their hair no longer than three inches.

Warsoldier, who lives in Riverside and owns a gallery owner said the decision was a victory for Indian men. "I was just upholding something I have always believed in," he said.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Warsoldier in March 2004. After a federal district court sided with the state and denied Warsoldier's request for a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the policy against him, Warsoldier was informed that , as a direct consequence of his refusal to violate his religion, he would be additionally punished by an extension of his time in prison until July 7, at the soonest.

On the day Warsoldier was to be released in 2004, the ACLU of Southern California and Bingham McCutchen filed an emergency motion in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, requesting that Warsoldier's punishments - including his additional prison time - be withdrawn immediately. The court granted the emergency request and ordered the state to release Warsoldier.

"Today's ruling sends a clear message to the Department of Corrections that it must change its policy in order to respect religious freedom," Eliasberg added.

LOS ANGELES - The ACLU of Southern California expects that the Los Angeles Police Department will expedite its investigation of the July 10 shooting death of toddler Suzie Marie Pena.

Public confidence demands that the LAPD not drag its feet and delay in releasing its findings. This investigation must not take 12 months and it must not be stalled in the hope that memories will fade and outrage will subside.

Only a reasonable and expedited investigation can help heal the pain felt by Suzie's death. The LAPD must take this opportunity to show that it has moved beyond 'business as usual' and will set concrete dates for when information will be available, stick to those dates and fully cooperate with the Inspector General, the eyes and ears of the Police Commission.

The community is watching and we must be able to trust that the police will perform an open, honest and thorough investigation and set a fair timeline to do so.

LOS ANGELES - After more than 50 days in an Iraqi detention center, Los Angeles documentary fillmmaker and Navy veteran Cyrus Kar was released with his cameraman from U.S. military custody, attorneys for the ACLU of Southern California and Kar's relatives announced Sunday.

In a phone call to his family and ACLU lawyers from the lawn at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, Kar said he was kept in solitary confinement with just one hour outside his cell each day and that he repeatedly asked for access to a lawyer, but was denied.

"It was like they put us in a cell and forgot about us," Kar said through a patchy connection on a satellite phone in Baghdad. "The only thing I knew about what was going on came from three short conversations with my family."

Kar's release from Camp Cropper, a military jail near the Baghdad airport, came just days after ACLU attorneys on behalf of his family filed a lawsuit in federal court against top U.S. officials for violating Kar's constitutional rights, federal law and international law and just one day before a federal judge was scheduled to hear the case in Washington, D.C.

Both Kar, a 44-year-old part time college professor, and his cameraman Farshid Faraji, who was detained in the Abu Ghraib prison, said they were concerned about the future of many other detainees who were similarly detained with no way to prove their innocence.

"My film is not my highest priority right now," Kar said. "People don't know the conditions in the detention centers. I supported the war in Iraq and I certainly support our people in uniform, but the public needs to know what's going on in Iraq. My eyes have been opened."

After Kar missed his return flight to Los Angeles, his relatives began a nearly two-month long odyssey to release Kar from U.S. custody. Kar's first cousin Shahrzad Folger and his aunt Parvin Modarress, contacted or attempted to contact several government agencies including the State Department, the Pentagon, the Embassy, the Navy and the offices of elected officials, but could confirm nothing about Kar even after they received assurances from the FBI that Kar had been cleared of any wrongdoing.

"We were so desperate to bring him home, but now I can't stop smiling, I'm so happy my nephew is safe," said Parvin Modarress, Kar's aunt. "I can't wait to have him here with us where we know he is unharmed."

Kar grew up along the West Coast after emigrating from Iran as a child. He served in the Navy for three years before earning a bachelor's degree from San Jose State University and a master's degree from Pepperdine University. For the past three years, he had been working on a historical documentary and manuscript about the Persian king Cyrus the Great. Kar and his cameraman Faraji had traveled to Iran, Tajikistan, Turkey and Afghanistan and collected dozens of hours of film. Kar lacked critical footage of Babylon and entered Iraq only after securing appropriate permits and visas from the U.S. and Iraqi governments and from Kurdish authorities. He has now learned that the government destroyed all his recent footage and his equipment.

"The government cannot hold someone indefinitely without access to family, without access to lawyers, and with no charges, especially after the FBI has cleared him of any and all wrongdoing," said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director for the ACLU of Southern California. "This trashes the constitution."

The lawsuit will proceed until Kar is safely home in Los Angeles. Attorneys in the case are international law specialist and former Chair of Amnesty International USA Paul Hoffman, Duke law professor Erwin Chemerinsky; Rosenbaum, Ahilan Arulanantham and Ranjana Natarajan of the ACLU of Southern California; Legal Director Steven Shapiro and Ben Wizner of the national ACLU; Lucas Guttentag and Lee Gelernt of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project; and Art Spitzer of the ACLU of the National Capital Area.