LOS ANGELES - The David Bohnett Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California today announced the creation of the Bohnett Fellowship at the ACLU of Southern California, a staff attorney position that will focus on gay and lesbian civil rights litigation. Attorney Martha Matthews, Esq., most recently of the National Youth Law Center, has been chosen to fill the position. The Bohnett Fellow at the ACLU of Southern California is the only dedicated position funded thus far by the David Bohnett Foundation.

"When David and I met and talked," said Ramona Ripston, Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California, "I knew immediately that he and the ACLU share a common vision. David deeply believes in the possibility of creating a better, more humane world, a world where all loving families are celebrated, where individuals can love one another freely and fully, and where gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and their relationships are accorded the same respect and legal rights that other people and their relationships enjoy. That's a vision the ACLU has long been determined to make a reality, and, with the generous support of the Bohnett Foundation, we'll be well equipped to continue that work."

The Bohnett Foundation, endowed with $32 million in 1999 by Internet entrepreneur and GeoCities founder David Bohnett, is guided by Bohnett's founding vision of investing in social change. The Foundation focuses its resources on:

-promoting a better understanding of lesbians and gay men through positive portrayals in the media

-encouraging gun control

-advancing the study of animal language research and supporting the humane treatment of animals, both as companions to humans and in their natural habitats

-supporting community-based social services for gays and lesbians

-developing mass transit and supporting alternatives to fossil fuel-based transportation

-fostering voter registration activities.

"I'm personally committed to doing whatever it takes to realize the dream of freedom, respect, and equality for gay and lesbian people and our families," said Bohnett. "The Bohnett Fellow will arrive at a critical juncture in California's history - as California's gay and lesbian couples and families struggle for equality and basic rights."

"I believe in the power of community," said Bohnett, "and the Bohnett Fellow will occupy a key position in two overlapping communities: the community of civil rights activists in Southern California, and Southern California's gay and lesbian community. Like others who lead these two dynamic groups, she has the potential to change the way we live, to help bring about a better world."

The ACLU of Southern California's commitment to lesbian and gay equality dates to 1966, when the ACLU stood up for the rights of adults to engage in consensual sex. Since that time, the ACLU of Southern California has been a leader in fighting for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, waging battles to challenge the military's discriminatory policy, to fight discrimination in the provision of medical care, to overturn anti-gay ordinances in local communities, and to stop discrimination in public groups such as the Boy Scouts.

LOS ANGELES - In an effort to protect individuals' rights to engage in commercial speech, the ACLU, along with the law firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, filed a lawsuit in federal court that challenges a Los Angeles City ordinance that prevents people from putting "FOR SALE" signs in cars parked on public streets. The lawsuit targets Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 80.75 as a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Liberty of Speech Clause of the California Constitution.

"Los Angeles, a city whose streets are lined with billboards," said Michael Small, Chief Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, "a city where buildings are shaped like chickens and donuts, and where advertisements abound on cars, buildings, buses, trucks, and benches, has chosen to restrict the speech of individuals who seek to sell their vehicles. There is no legitimate reason to single out this particular form of speech for restriction. This ordinance benefits used car dealers and large circulation newspapers, while penalizing ordinary citizens. It's also unfair to people who don't have a private driveway."

Municipal Code Section 80.75 was passed in 1977 and prohibits advertising, including "FOR SALE" signs, in cars parked on public streets. Individuals who display such signs in a car parked on public property are issued fines by the city in the amount of $35.

In September of 1999, Mr. Edward Burkow parked his Volkswagen Jetta on Willoughby Street in Los Angeles. He received a ticket and paid a fine, but contested the penalty on the grounds that the ordinance is unconstitutional. Mr. Burkow's hearing examiner rejected his argument and a Municipal Court judicial officer later affirmed that decision.

"Unlike corporations, who lobby against restrictions on their commercial speech and challenge such restrictions in court," said Peter Eliasberg, staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California, "Mr. Burkow is an ordinary individual with the ordinary limitations on his resources. But free speech in our country can't be divvied up on the basis of who can afford to defend their speech in court. Commercial speech is a form of speech individuals, as well as corporations, must be able to exercise without arbitrary restrictions."

LOS ANGELES - Today, on the 46th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, civil rights groups and attorneys in California filed the most comprehensive lawsuit concerning the bare minimums required for education ever to be brought against a state. The historic class-action lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court on behalf of students in eighteen schools located throughout California. The lawsuit charges the state with having reneged on its constitutional obligation to provide at least the bare essentials necessary for education to all students. The suit also charges California with having violated state and federal requirements that equal access to public education be provided without regard to race, color, or national origin.

The suit was filed jointly by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California; ACLU of Northern California; Morrison & Foerster; Public Advocates, Inc.; Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund; Newman, Aaronson, Vanaman; Center for Law in the Public Interest; Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Karl Mannheim, Esq.; Allan Ides, Esq, and Peter Edelman, Esq.

Plaintiffs have been subjected to the following conditions as part of their everyday educational experience:

Lack of Materials and Basic Resources

-no textbooks or other educationally necessary curricular material

-too few textbooks or other educationally necessary curricular material

-outdated or defaced textbooks

-no or not enough basic school supplies

-no access to a library

-no or not enough access to computers and computer instruction

-not enough labs

-no or not enough lab materials

-no access to music or art classes

-too few guidance counselors Inadequate Instruction

-as few as 13% of teachers with full teaching credentials

-chronically unfilled teacher vacancies

-heavy reliance on substitute teachers in place of permanent teachers

-no homework assignments due to lack of materials

Massive Overcrowding

-classes without enough seats and desks, so students sit on counters

-cramped, makeshift classrooms

-multitrack schedules that curtail the calendar length of courses

-multitrack schedules that prevent continuous, year-to-year study in a given subject

-multitrack schedules that force students to take key exams before completing the full course of study

Degraded, Unhealthful Facilities and Conditions

-broken or nonexistent air conditioning or heating systems; extremely hot or cold classrooms

-toilets that don't flush; toilets that are filthy with urine, excrement, or blood; toilets that are locked

-lack of working water fountains

-unrepaired, hazardous facilities, including broken windows, walls, and ceilings

-vermin infestations

-leaky roofs and mold

-no school nurse on premises

"These are schools that shock the conscience, schools where students can't learn and teachers can't teach," said Mark Rosenbaum, Legal Director of the ACLU of Southern California. "These schools are the shame of California."

"The failures this lawsuit addresses are not randomly distributed," observed Julie Su, Litigation Director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. "They're concentrated in communities of color, in economically struggling communities, and in immigrant communities. The state's neglect has a clearly discriminatory impact."

In fact, data from the California Department of Education show that in plaintiffs' schools, 96.4% of the population is students of color, compared to 59% statewide.

"In one of the only problem categories measured by the state & the percent of uncredentialed teachers in a school," noted Su, "the correlation is clear. The more students of color attending a school, the more untrained teachers will be teaching at that school. The same holds true for students who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches. These numbers aren't the result of coincidence: this system discriminates."

"This is the Mississippification of California's schools," said Rosenbaum, "a separate and unequal system for the have-nots that would make Linda Brown shudder."

"At the start of the 21st century, all of California's children should be attending state-of-the-art learning centers," said Hector Villagra, staff attorney at Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. "Yet, just as Latino children have become the majority of our state's public school children, California has ignored rampant overcrowding and the urgent need for new school construction, depriving hundreds of thousands of children of the most basic element of an acceptable educational experience. Every child deserves - and the state must provide - room to learn."

"Forty-six years ago today, the Supreme Court in Brown vs. Board of Education rejected a system of inequality that had come to be accepted by many in this country as a natural state of affairs," said Ramona Ripston, Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California. "Today, we're asking this country to reject another system of unequal education, a system that blocks some children from learning and growing to their full potential. The State of California has the resources to provide all children with a good education, and we cannot afford to do anything less."