RIVERSIDE, CA - Documents unsealed in federal court recently charge the Old Baldy Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Inc. with fraudulently obtaining taxpayer funds to sponsor recruitment activities in the cities of Montclair and Ontario. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California filed suit on behalf of an area resident and ACLU/SC board member, Glenn Goodwin, in August of 2002. The lawsuit has remained under seal until just recently, to give the U.S. Department of Justice time to decide whether to intervene.

The suit was filed under the Federal False Claims Act, which allows concerned citizens with knowledge of fraud used to obtain federal funds to file suit on behalf of the United States government. The suit charges that the Boy Scouts of America openly discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation and religion, so it cannot truthfully promise to comply with state and federal non-discrimination laws.

'This isn't about the Boy Scout's right to choose its own members,' said Glenn Goodwin, plaintiff in the federal suit. 'This is about an organization that lied to obtain taxpayer funds. Isn't telling the truth a part of the Scout Oath?'

The Old Baldy Council of the Boy Scouts of America applied for and received a federal Community Development Block Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in August of 2001. The grant was for recruitment of boys in public schools to form new Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops. As an express condition of this $15,000 grant, the Council signed a certification of compliance with federal and state laws prohibiting discrimination in employment and provision of services and benefits. The suit charges that the Scouts had no intention of honoring that commitment because their rules prohibit hiring, or accepting as youth or adult members, gays and lesbians and people who refuse to swear an oath to God.

'The Old Baldy Council cannot comply with the Boy Scouts of America's national policy of discrimination and at the same time comply with state and federal anti-discrimination laws,' said Martha Matthews, Bohnett Attorney with the ACLU/SC. 'The Boy Scouts can't have it both ways - they must either stop discriminating in employment and membership, or stop receiving taxpayer money.'

LOS ANGELES - On the thirtieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, over twenty-five reproductive rights and civil rights organizations in California are calling upon women's advocates in the state's Congressional delegation to ensure that the Bush Administration does not dismantle the protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade.

In an open letter, the groups urge, 'With your help, our granddaughters may mature in a nation that respects their freedom, not one that offers only the stunted choices and unconscionable risks of earlier generations.' Since taking office, the Bush Administration has pursued a steady, though stealthy, campaign to eliminate reproductive freedom in the U.S. and around the world.

Roe v. Wade has been the cornerstone of dramatic increases in women's participation in the economic, social and political life of our nation since 1973. Legal abortion has become one of the safest clinical procedures performed in the United States and is 11 times safer than childbirth. For those reasons and others, more than 7 in 10 Californians identify themselves as pro-choice.

'A woman's right to choose is one of our most critical and hard won liberties in a generation,' said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California. 'Unfortunately the Bush Administration does not share this view. Today we send a clear message to those who seek to banish women to the dark ages of back-alley abortions: we will not go back, we will fight to keep our right to choose.'

California has resisted the national trend toward growing inequality in reproductive freedom, because it has a state constitutional right to privacy, a court system that enforces that right, and a pro-choice Governor, Legislature and Attorney General. The groups say that Californians must now turn their attention to the federal government, which is poised to enact draconian new restrictions on abortion access.

Signatories to the letter include ACCES/ Women's Health Rights Coalition, ACLU of Southern California, ACLU of Northern California, ACLU of San Diego, Asians & Pacific Islanders for Reproductive Health, California Commission on Status of Women, CARAL, California NOW, California Catholics for Free Choice, California Women Lawyers, California Family Health Council Inc., National Council of Jewish Women, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, Physicians for Reproductive Health & Choice, and Women's Leadership Alliance.

LOS ANGELES - In a unanimous vote last night, the City Council of West Hollywood passed a resolution regarding the civil liberties dangers of the USA PATRIOT Act, the first Southern California city to join a growing movement across the nation of local jurisdictions voicing dissent and exploring ways of responding locally to USA Patriot's civil liberties threats. Twenty-six other cities and counties have passed such resolutions, including Oakland, Denver, and Detroit, in part of a national movement led by the ACLU and other groups.

The City of West Hollywood was also one of 5 cities in the nation to address the issue of library privacy explicitly in its resolution and has instructed city librarians to notify patrons about the impact USA PATRIOT has on the privacy of patron records, including Internet searches. Librarians across the country have been expressing concern about the ways in which the PATRIOT Act compromises patrons' privacy.

'Libraries should be a bastion of intellectual freedom,' said Ramona Ripston, 'but when federal law enforcement authorities have the power to conduct secret searches, then everyone's intellectual freedom is compromised.'

'Your library card should be your passport to a world of your own, a private world, and your librarian should be the trusted custodian of that privacy. But changes in federal law have altered that basic understanding,' said Ripston. 'In the cold war, we saw that libraries across the nation were visited and searched; people with foreign-sounding names were automatic suspects. Unfortunately, we've returned to that era under Attorney General Ashcroft.'

Since 9/11, library patrons have far fewer protections against privacy violations. Business records, including library records, are subject to searches authorized by secret courts, and librarians are prohibited from informing individual patrons whose records are seized. In addition, searches of library Internet use records potentially expose all library patrons to law enforcement scrutiny.

The City of West Hollywood also instructed its Public Safety staff to review all of the ways in which the city can ensure the First Amendment rights of its residents.

'The First Amendment provision of the West Hollywood resolution is critical,' said Ripston. 'So many of the provisions of the PATRIOT Act chill freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and even, potentially, the free exercise of religion. When government agents spy on domestic groups, as they are authorized to do now, individuals take real risks in participating in dissent. Likewise, mosques or other religious establishments may, as a result of Attorney General Ashcroft's power grab, be targeted with domestic surveillance.'