LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California today expressed great concern that the Bush administration will replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who announced her retirement today after more than two decades on the court, with a nominee whose judicial philosophy is fundamentally opposed to the progress made in protecting individual rights over the past century.

"Justice O'Connor's legacy will be of a conscientious judge who, as a centrist and a conservative, at certain critical junctures, resisted extremist ideology on the Court that would have stripped the constitution of its sensitivity to such core values as protection against gender and racial discrimination and subordinated the rights of the individual to the power of the executive. We are gravely concerned that President Bush will use this opportunity to nominate someone whose judicial philosophy is hostile to civil liberties," said ACLU/SC Legal Director Mark Rosenbaum. O'Connor wrote the majority opinion in Rosenbaum's first case before the Supreme Court (Kolender v. Lawson), supporting the constitutional rights of a Los Angeles man repeatedly stopped by police.

As a matter of policy, the ACLU will only oppose nominees to the Supreme Court that are fundamentally hostile to civil liberties and will do so upon a vote of the board of directors. The national board of the ACLU has voted to oppose only two nominees in its history: Justice William Rehnquist and former solicitor general and law professor Robert Bork.

Although her record on the court is mixed on civil liberties, Justice O'Connor has provided the crucial fifth vote in a number of cases implicating core civil liberties. For instance, she wrote the opinion upholding equal opportunity programs and the importance of diversity in college admissions in Grutter v. Bollinger. She often was instrumental in resisting attempts to undo many of this nation's most cherished rights such as a woman's right to choose.

She also wrote the opinion in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, in which the court ruled that an American citizen seized overseas as an "enemy combatant" must be allowed to challenge the factual basis of his or her detention before an independent arbiter. Affirming the rule of law even during times of national crisis, O'Connor wrote: "We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens."

Although the majority opinion in Hamdi is far from perfect, it remains a strong rebuke of the Bush administration, which had argued for absolute power to detain American citizens seized overseas in military custody without charge, trial or access to counsel.

And in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, she broke with Chief Justice Rehnquist and other opponents of a woman's right to choose as part of a 6-3 majority in affirming Roe v. Wade.

"O'Connor's resignation and the nomination of her successor could directly affect the outcome of some of the most divisive legal questions facing America today," said ACLU/SC Executive Director Ramona Ripston. "The rights of women, American detainees, death row inmates and all of us under the Patriot Act could be in jeopardy."

LOS ANGELES - The ACLU of California is calling on Gov. Schwarzenegger to take "immediate steps" to stop the California National Guard from spying on people who are engaged in peaceful protest following revelations that an intelligence unit recently spied on a rally organized by families of slain American soldiers. A California Public Records Act request was filed with both the Governor and the California National Guard seeking documents relating to the peace rally and the Intelligence Unit.

"We were shocked to learn that grandmothers protesting on Mother's Day were the target of a National Guard terrorist unit," said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California. "We fear that the surveillance of the Mothers' Day peace rally is just the tip of the iceberg and we call on the Governor to take immediate action to put a stop to this illegal activity. The national guard should not be spying on families of slain Americans soldiers."

The Mothers' Day incident was revealed in the San Jose Mercury News - disclosing that a handful of peaceful, anti-war protestors at the Sacramento Capitol were spied on by a special intelligence unit of the National Guard. The May 8 rally was organized by Gold Star Families for Peace, Raging Grannies and Code Pink.

California affiliates of the ACLU, representing more than 90,000 members, are calling on the Governor immediately to take the following steps:

'Disband the National Guard's Intelligence Unit or impose strict regulations on the unit. Strict regulations include: prohibiting the monitoring and collection of information on individuals and organizations engaged in First Amendment protected activity; prohibiting dissemination of information already collected to other government agencies; creating clear guidelines and definitions that protest activity - including civil disobedience - is not terrorism; and regulation of file storage and data retention to ensure regular purging of any databases and storage systems.

'Under the California Public Records Act, release all information related to the May 8 incident and other incidents in which the National Guard has been used to monitor protected First Amendment activities. This includes all documents related to the anti-war protest held at the Capitol on Mothers' Day; to any anti-war demonstrations in the past year; all correspondence from members of the Intelligence Unit related to Code Pink, Gold Star Families for Peace, and/or Raging Grannies.

The ACLU of Southern California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the law firm Millbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy reached a settlement yesterday in their lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles Unified School District on behalf of Washington Preparatory High School students and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network who sued to stop harassment on the basis of sexual orientation.
The settlement includes a comprehensive series of mandatory training sessions for Washington Prep teachers, staff, and students, and for middle school students who will attend the South Los Angeles high school. The settlement aims to prevent harassment and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students through training and other efforts by LAUSD's Education Equity Compliance Office that will focus on ending sexual orientation and gender identity prejudice.
"History has shown that ignoring bias never works and only silences the voices that need most to be heard. Other school districts have tried to hide sexual orientation and gender identity issues as too controversial, so we are pleased that LAUSD has chosen to face these issues head on and is working to create a better environment for students at Washington Prep," said Christine Sun, staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California. "The training is a model for the rest of the state."
The settlement includes a mandatory day-long faculty training on diversity, discrimination and harassment, focused primarily on issues pertaining to actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. The Anti-Defamation League will conduct the training, which began this year and will be repeated in the next two school years.
Gays and Lesbians Initiating Dialogue for Equality (GLIDE), will hold classroom training sessions and assemblies for Washington Prep students and middle school students slated to attend the high school that encourage diversity and aim to eliminate discrimination and harassment.
"I am so happy all the students at Washington Prep will have this training," said David Ramirez, who will graduate next week. "It was really hard to go to school before because some people here just didn't know how to be tolerant. Things have gotten better since we stood up for gay students and I think they'll improve even more now."
Added Carolyn Laub, executive director of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, which was also a plaintiff in the lawsuit: "GSA Network is pleased that the settlement agreement includes mandatory staff training and student education on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues because these proven strategies will help create what all students at Washington Prep deserve -- a safe place to learn."
The lawsuit originally charged LAUSD and Washington Preparatory High School administrators, teachers, and security guards for harassing gay and lesbian students on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation and operating "a climate rife with hostility towards and discrimination against students and staff based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation."
Students at the school sued on the grounds that they were subjected to administrators, teachers, and staff calling students names such as "faggot" and "sinner" and telling students they are "wrong," "unholy," "hate[d]," and "not supposed to be like this" because the students are, or are perceived to be, lesbian, gay, or bisexual. The suit also charged that teachers threatened to "out" students to their families as punishment for students' sexual orientation, the lawsuit said.
Deanne Neiman from LAUSD's Education Equity Compliance Office said: "It is important to acknowledge that the District has had a long-standing and pro-active commitment to protecting LGBT students from discrimination and harassment. Since 2001 and continuing to date, 216 Anti-Bias LGBT Trainings were conducted for school administrators and staff. At Washington Prep this settlement agreement augments the comprehensive training and activities already underway at the school and in the District as a whole."