SAN LUIS OBISPO - The ACLU of Southern California and the San Luis Obispo Chapter of the ACLU sent letters today to the County of San Luis Obispo and City of Atascadero challenging the legality and fairness of subsidizing the activities of the Boy Scouts of America by offering them "sweetheart deals" on rent of government lands, facilities and buildings.

"Our letters ask the county and the city of Atascadero to stop subsidizing discrimination by giving rent-free leases to the Boy Scouts," said Martha Matthews, staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. "As the Los Padres Council's recent firing of Leonard Lanzi shows, the Boy Scouts of America has abandoned the values it used to stand for -- honesty, fairness, and respect for diversity -- in favor of bias and exclusion."

"The County and the City should follow the lead of the City of San Luis Obispo, which stopped giving the Boy Scouts free use of a public building last year, after community protests," said Hank Alberts, president of the San Luis Obispo Chapter of the ACLU.

The national leadership of the Boy Scouts of America recently went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm their right to be a "private expressive association," with discriminatory membership policies that exclude gay persons and religious non-believers.

"It's unlawful for cities and counties to subsidize the Boy Scouts' activities through rent-free leases of valuable public property," said Matthews. "Such leases violate the California and federal constitutions' guarantees of equal protection and freedom of religion, and would also be vulnerable to a taxpayer suit for waste of public resources. Last fall, the ACLU sued the City of San Diego over a similar lease of public parkland to the Boy Scouts for $1 per year."

The ACLU argues that the government should not subsidize organizations that exclude some youth and families - those who are religious non-believers, gay or lesbian, and also those who do not want their children to participate in an organization that teaches religious intolerance and homophobia.

"The most effective way for the County and the City to sever their ties with the Boy Scouts would be to enact local non-discrimination ordinances that cover sexual orientation," said Matthews. "Both leases have clauses saying that the Boy Scouts must comply with all local laws or the leases can be immediately terminated."

LOS ANGELES - In a letter written to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California on January 5, Deputy City Attorney Deborah Sanchez notified the organization that the City had revised Municipal Code �_ 41.59, which restricts individuals' rights to solicit in a variety of places and contexts. Two of the primary passages of the ordinance that the ACLU objected to, one dealing with a ban on solicitation near restaurants, and another dealing with a ban near bus stops, bans which, together would have effectively placed much of the City off limits as a forum for any kind of solicitation, have been deleted. The repeal comes after the ACLU won a series of legal victories in its challenge to the ordinance, most recently, when the 9th Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction issued by a lower court that prohibited the City from enforcing the ordinance.

"The most egregious portions of the solicitation ban are where they ought to be," said Peter Eliasberg, staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California, "in the dustbin of local history. This ordinance tried to turn Los Angeles into a place where only the privileged are free to speak, and where speaking the urgent truth about one's need would be a punishable crime."

Eliasberg noted that the ordinance would also have barred groups such as the Busriders' Union from soliciting for new members at the most logical place for such solicitation: near transit stops.

"It may have served the interests of some to stifle the political organizing and growth of grassroots organizations that seek to reach those who use public transportation," said Eliasberg, "but such activities are clearly protected by the First Amendment and are fundamental to our freedom."

Sanchez declared that the City would stand behind the revised ordinance.

"Please know," she wrote in the January 5 letter, "that the City is prepared to defend the ordinance, as amended, in the District Court."

The ACLU and its clients are reviewing the revisions.

"This is an extraordinary victory," said Carol Sobel, ACLU cooperating attorney. "And we're talking to our clients about whether this satisfies all of their concerns. But the revisions to the ordinance go to the heart of our claims and essentially protect free speech on public sidewalks, whether that speech comes from the Salvation Army, the Girl Scouts, or anyone else who uses public places to solicit the public for support."

LOS ANGELES - In a reversal of position in response to an ACLU of Southern California lawsuit, Beltran v. UC Regents, the University of California late yesterday announced that it will admit students who qualify academically but whose schools failed to fill out the paperwork for the ELC ("Eligibility in a Local Context") admissions program, which guarantees admission to UC for the top 4% of each graduating class. The ACLU of Southern California filed suit in California State Superior Court on December 20, 2000, challenging the University's violation of the students' due process rights.

"Just in time for Christmas, the University checked its list twice and took back the lumps of coal it left in the stockings of high-achieving students whose schools failed to do the paperwork for the ELC program," said Mark Rosenbaum, Legal Director of the ACLU of Southern California. "These students deserve admission without question. They earned it. The University's decision yesterday will change the lives of thousands of students. It's the right decision, and we're very pleased to see the students' interests placed ahead of everything else."

"We're delighted by the University's announcement, and we commend the University of California for acting so quickly in the best interests of deserving students," said Rocio Cordoba, staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. "We look forward to learning the details of the University's proposal to remedy the problems in its ELC program. We are very pleased that the Regents recognized that these were deserving students who had been unfairly punished by an admissions policy that did not function properly, but we hope that the University will take this one step further and institute a system which does not fail in one of six schools in California next year. In any case, no student should ever again be put in the position of having qualified academically but being disqualified through someone else's omission."

"Before we decide whether this fully satisfies the requirements of fairness, however," said Cordoba, "we will need to evaluate the details of the University's response."

Students and attorneys can be reached on Saturday, December 23, by leaving a message for Christopher Calhoun at 213/977-5252; he will be checking messages and will reply with contact numbers for interested reporters.