03-07-2000
ACLU Newsfeed -- ACLU News Direct to YOU!

  IN THE ACLU NEWSROOM

       **The Latest News Can Always Be Found At:**
          http://www.aclu.org/news/pressind.html

* Passage of 'Traffic Stop Data Collection Act' in Illinois
  Is Key "First Step" to End of Racial Profiling, ACLU Says

* Slated Release of Gay Texas Inmate Further Reveals
  Death Penaltys Injustice, Merits Statewide Moratorium

* Latino, Religious Rights Groups Oppose
  CA Initiative to Ban Same-Gender Marriage

* House Panel Approves Traffic Stops Bill

* ACLU Calls for Independent Commission
  to Investigate Corruption Scandal Rocking LAPD

* Iowa Civil Liberties Union Condemns
  State Lawmakers' Call to Post Ten Commandments

* Settlement of CO Strip-Search Case Ends Practice
  For Federal Jobs Corps Participants Nationwide

* Other Recent ACLU News Releases



     Passage of 'Traffic Stop Data Collection Act' in Illinois
     Is Key "First Step" to End of Racial Profiling, ACLU Says

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 3, 2000

CHICAGO, IL -- Calling it a "clear signal" that the state's highest 
leadership will not tolerate racial profiling, the American Civil Liberties 
Union of Illinois today praised the passage of House Bill 3911 -- the 
Traffic Stop Data Collection Act -- by the Illinois House of 
Representatives.

The measure, vigorously opposed by some law enforcement groups, secured 78 
votes, demonstrating statewide, bipartisan support. Sponsored by 
Representative Monique Davis (D- Chicago), the measure requires the 
Illinois State Police to collect two additional items of information and 
record them on the face of a traffic or warning citation: the race of the
person stopped and whether a search was conducted that resulted in no 
further legal action.

"We are pleased and gratified that the Illinois House of Representatives 
acted today to advance a concrete solution to the invidious practice of 
racial profiling," said ACLU spokesperson Edwin C. Yohnka. "Today's vote 
sends a clear signal that the political leadership in this state will not 
tolerate the targeting of ethnic minorities for harassment by law 
enforcement agencies."

The ACLU noted that a number of states already have initiated procedures 
for collecting data on the race or ethnicity of motorists stopped and 
searched by police. Under the terms of a consent decrees with the U.S. 
Department of Justice, New Jersey and Maryland agreed recently to collect 
data on the race of those stopped by police. Michigan, Maryland, North 
Carolina and Connecticut all are collecting this data voluntarily or 
because of a legislative act. Eighteen other states, including Florida, 
Tennessee, Missouri and Wisconsin are considering legislation this year to 
mandate the collection of similar data.

In addition, more than 100 local law enforcement agencies have begun to 
collect and analyze this data on a municipal basis. These agencies include 
the police departments for large cities such as Houston, San Jose and San 
Francisco, as well as Urbana, Illinois. The village of Mount Prospect, 
Illinois, stung by its own racial profiling scandal, announced earlier this 
week that it will begin to collect and analyze racial data related to 
traffic stops.

"With passage of this bill by the state senate and approval by Governor 
Ryan, Illinois will move into the mainstream of states collecting data 
about the racial and ethnic background of persons stopped for traffic 
offenses," said the ACLU's Yohnka. "This process creates an objective 
record that allows us to determine if racial profiling is going on around 
the state, and establishes accountability at the highest levels of the 
Illinois State Police to insure that no racial profiling is occurring."

House Bill 3911 now moves to the Illinois Senate for consideration in that 
body.



     Slated Release of Gay Texas Inmate Further Reveals
     Death Penaltys Injustice, Merits Statewide Moratorium

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 2, 2000

NEW YORK -- Citing the release of a gay man yesterday whose sexual 
orientation was used as a basis for sentencing him to die, the American 
Civil Liberties Union today called on the Governor of Texas to impose an 
immediate moratorium on the death penalty statewide.

Calvin Burdines 15-year-old conviction was overturned in September because 
his public defender slept through substantial portions of the trial. The 
ACLUs brief in the appeal also argued that the trial was tainted with 
homophobia, from the prosecutor, from Burdines court-appointed lawyer and 
from the jury. The trial judge failed to intervene during repeated 
homophobic comments in the courtroom.

When Burdines conviction was overturned, the state was given 120 days to 
re-try or free him. The state missed the deadline, yet still argued that 
Burdine should remain on death row. Yesterday, a federal judge ordered the 
state to release Burdine by Monday. During Burdines trial, the prosecution 
argued that life imprisonment is a less severe punishment for homosexuals 
than for heterosexuals. "Sending a homosexual to the penitentiary
certainly isnt a very bad punishment for a homosexual, and thats what 
hes asking you to do," the prosecutor said in the final moments of his 
closing statement.

"The justice system failed not only Calvin Burdine, but also the people of 
Texas by permitting bigotry and shoddy representation to open the door to 
this result," said Matt Coles, Director of the ACLUs Lesbian and Gay 
Rights Project.

"This is not the only case where gay men or lesbians have been sentenced to 
death because of their sexual orientation," Coles said. "Just as the death 
penalty is applied selectively to people of color and low-income people, it 
is also used against lesbian and gay people. Its unconscionable  and its 
also unconstitutional."

In a letter sent to Texas Gov. George W. Bush today, the ACLU said an 
immediate moratorium on the death penalty is the "moral and Constitutional" 
response to continued injustice in Texas capital punishment system. "In a 
state and a larger society where prejudice plays a major role in criminal 
justice in general and the death penalty in particular, lesbians and gay 
men -- like every despised minority -- have good reason to fear the death 
penalty. And  regardless of race, sexual orientation or class  all Texans 
and all Americans have reason for deep concern," the ACLU wrote.

This morning, Bush said he opposes Burdines release, and claimed that the 
Texas Constitution precludes him from issuing a moratorium on capital 
punishment. The ACLU reiterated that its position is not necessarily that 
Burdine should be released from prison for good  but that he deserves a 
fair trial, free of homophobia and with adequate representation. Further, 
the ACLU noted that Illinois Gov. George Ryans recent Executive Order 
halting executions there remains an issue of state constitutional debate  
but that Ryans order has suspended executions in the meantime.

More information on ACLU's "Execution Watch" campaign can be found at:
http://www.aclu.org/executionwatch.html

The letter to Gov. Bush can be found online at:
http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/n030200b.html



     Latino, Religious Rights Groups Oppose
     CA Initiative to Ban Same-Gender Marriage

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 2, 2000 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Striking back at cynical efforts to garner Latino 
support for a state ballot initiative to ban recognition of same-sex 
marriage, Latino civil rights advocates and members of the religious 
community today placed a full-page advertisement opposing the measure in 
California's largest Spanish-language newspaper, La Opinion.

At a news conference today, the groups called the initiative divisive and 
reminded the public that supporters of Proposition 22, as the initiative is 
known, are the same people who supported Proposition 187, the 
anti-immigrant measure passed in 1994 and later invalidated by the courts.

"Pete Knight, who is the author of Proposition 22, is the same person who 
distributed a racist and anti-immigrant poem about Latinos in the state 
legislature," said Renee Saucedo, of La Raza Centro Legal. "The poem 
describes immigrants as 'breeding' and "trash" and living off welfare. It 
is hypocritical that the Knight campaign is trying to win the Latino vote 
by purchasing ads on Spanish-language television."

"Proposition 22 only divides and undermines our families," said Lisa 
Maldonado, of the ACLU of Northern California. "All families need support 
and recognition, whether they are gay and lesbian or traditional nuclear 
families. Proposition 22 violates the hard-earned civil rights to members 
of our community."

Many Latino leaders including Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers, 
Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, and San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzalez 
oppose Proposition 22, she noted.

Participants in today's news conference include Susan Leal, San Francisco 
City Treasurer; Susan Contreras of the League of United Latin American 
Citizens; Maria Blanco, Executive Director of the Mexican American Legal 
Defense and Education Fund; and Irma Herrera, Executive Director of the 
Equal Rights Advocates.

For more information on Proposition 22 and other efforts around the country 
to ban same-gender marriage, visit these ACLU Web sites:

     ACLU of Northern California
     http://www.aclunc.org/lesbian-and-gay/knight.html 

     ACLU of Southern California
     http://www.aclu-sc.org/ballot/propostion22.htm 

     ACLU National Lesbian and Gay Rights Project
     http://www.aclu.org/issues/gay/hmgl.html 



     House Panel Approves Traffic Stops Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 1, 2000

Contact: DC Media Relations Office
         media@dcaclu.org

WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded the House
Judiciary Committee's unanimous vote in favor of legislation that would 
begin to address the national epidemic of racially motivated traffic 
stops.

By a unanimous voice vote -- and without adopting any weakening amendments 
-- the Committee approved the "Traffic Stops Statistics Act" introduced by 
Rep. John Conyers, D-MI. The legislation would encourage police departments 
to keep detailed records of traffic stops, including the race and ethnicity 
of the person stopped.

"As today's vote demonstrated, this bill should no longer be considered 
controversial -- dozens of police agencies across the country have already 
voluntarily agreed to collect traffic stops data," said Rachel King, an 
ACLU Legislative Counsel. "Congress must catch up to the 81 percent of the 
American public who told a recent Gallup poll that police should not use 
racial profiling."

Under the proposed bill, the Justice Department would be charged with 
collecting the data kept by police departments and determining the full 
scope of this problem nationwide. ACLU offices around the country have 
dealt with complaints from African American men who have been stopped by 
the police for no other reason than the alleged traffic offense derisively 
referred to as "Driving While Black."

In Maryland, for example, the ACLU is engaged in a long-running fight with 
the State Police Department over traffic stops on I-95. A study of police 
stops on one strip of this major interstate found that 73 percent of the 
cars stopped and searched were driven by African-Americans while they made 
up approximately 15 percent of those violating traffic laws.

"While anecdotal evidence abounds, there has been no systematic effort to 
track this trend from a federal level," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of 
the ACLU's Washington National Office.

"We're optimistic that if Congress approves this modest bill, the result 
will be a serious documentation of the pattern of discrimination on our 
nation's roadways. "With this evidence," Murphy concluded, "federal, state 
and local officials will be forced to take a hard look at their practices, 
and it will hopefully lead communities to address this problem of 
discrimination."

The ACLU has a special web-based collection on racial profiling at:
http://www.aclu.org/profiling



        ACLU Calls for Independent Commission
       To Investigate Corruption Scandal Rocking LAPD 

     Statement of Ramona Ripston, Executive Director
            ACLU of Southern California

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 1, 2000

LOS ANGELES, CA -- It's time for the mayor to wake up. This city and its 
police department need an independent commission  and we need it now. 
Relying on the police department to ferret out all of the underlying 
problems is like having a cancer patient operate on himself.

Only an independent, blue-ribbon commission with a broad mandate to examine 
the entire criminal justice system and then to ensure that the necessary 
reforms are implemented by the police department can do the job the 
residents of Los Angeles deserve.

First we were told we were just looking at a few bad apples  now Chief 
Parks is calling this corruption a cancer eating away at the LAPD. Chief 
Parks has proposed a number of good reforms, but at root he continues to 
treat this as a character issue that he can resolve by going around to 
every precinct and personally telling officers to up their professional 
standards. Well, that is not enough. This indeed is a cancer. It is 
structural and it is cultural  and it stems from the LAPD's ongoing 
refusal to open itself up to public scrutiny so that officer misconduct can 
be screened for, detected and eradicated before it has a chance to spread.

The problem with this report is it really tells us nothing new; it just 
acknowledges longstanding problems within the department: a faulty 
complaint system, inadequate tracking systems, poor supervision, and bad 
hiring practices  problems that groups interested in police reform have 
pointed out for years. Chief Parks wants us to believe that "we do not need 
to reinvent the wheel, introduce a flock of new programs or institute
revolutionary approaches to police work. What we do need to do is emphasize 
a scrupulous adherence to existing policies and standards."

Chief Parks, the present system cannot be defended. The LAPD claims credit 
for uncovering this scandal and making it public, but the report admits 
systemic failure to find the problems in the first place. If Rafael Perez 
had not been arrested for theft and copped a plea following a mistrial in 
order to gain a lighter sentence, the structural problems that have been 
festering for years  shootings, beatings, cover-ups, perjurious statements 
 would not have been discovered.

Chief Parks blames, in part, the lack of an adequate computer tracking 
system to track officer misconduct. The Christopher Commission recommended 
this system back in 1991; the federal government gave seed money to the 
department to implement it. Why didn't the chief, the second in command of 
the department until 1992 and then in charge of Internal Affairs, make sure 
that this system was in place long before he learned of the Rampart 
scandal?

The Board of Inquiry report fails to look at what is going on in divisions 
outside of Rampart. It fails to take into account the most recent 
revelations of corruption within the department. It fails in its attempt to 
ensure the public that true structural changes will be made and must be 
made.



     Iowa Civil Liberties Union Condemns
     State Lawmakers' Call to Post Ten Commandments 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 1, 2000

DES MOINES, IA -- The Iowa Civil Liberties Union today condemned a proposal 
by 12 legislators to require posting of the Ten Commandments in the State 
Senate chamber.

Describing the proposal as a "profoundly insensitive display of 
governmental arrogance," Ben Stone, the group's executive director, said 
that in America, "politicians have no business telling people what to 
believe and how to act regarding religion."

Stone pointed out that the Commandments deal with much more than rules 
governing how people should treat one another. They include demands that 
everyone believe in God, observe the Sabbath, not take the Lords name in 
vain and not worship idols.

Senate Resolution 111, introduced February 29, requires the "prominent 
display" of the Ten Commandments in the Iowa Senate chamber, and 
"encourages all other Iowa state governmental bodies and political 
subdivisions" to do likewise.

The law thus calls for the posting of the religious text in all public 
schools, county courthouses and city halls, including, Stone noted with 
irony, the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, which is required by law to 
enforce laws against religious discrimination.

Stone criticized the members behind the proposal for, in effect, using the 
Senate Chamber to evangelize their personal religious viewpoints. "The Iowa 
Senate chamber belongs to all the people of Iowa, not just the senators who 
use it," he said. "If some senators want to promote religious doctrines, 
let them form a club and do it as private citizens."

Introduction of the resolution follows similar efforts in other states that 
appear to be part of a coordinated, nationwide campaign by religious 
political extremists to get the government to post the Ten Commandments all 
across the land.

Since 1997, there have been over a half dozen lawsuits by ACLU affiliates 
regarding the Ten Commandments. Stone says there have been at least three 
such lawsuits in the past four months alone. ACLU lawyers have thus far 
prevailed, relying on a 1980 U.S.Supreme Court decision which found the 
posting of the commandments in public schools to be in violation of the 
First Amendment.

ACLU affiliates in Illinois (http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/n021000b.html) 
and Kentucky (http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/w010700b.html), among others, 
are currently battling efforts to post the Ten Commandments in public 
schools and government offices.



     Settlement of CO Strip-Search Case Ends Practice
     For Federal Jobs Corps Participants Nationwide 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 1, 2000

DENVER, CO -- The successful settlement here of a federal civil rights 
lawsuit brought against the Department of Labor to stop strip-searches of 
Job Corps participants will end the practice nationwide, the American Civil 
Liberties Union of Colorado said today.

The ACLU represented two Job Corps participants in Collbran who were forced 
to undergo a humiliating group strip search initiated by a "rumor" that one 
of the 30 program participants might be carrying drugs. Each participant 
was ordered to strip and endure an invasive, full-body search or else be 
"terminated on the spot." No drugs were ever found.

The Collbran Center, operated by the U.S. Department of Labor, provides a 
residential education and vocational training program for disadvantaged 
youth.

"Today's agreement will protect Job Corps participants in every Job Corps 
facility in the country," said Susan Brienza, who served as an ACLU 
cooperating attorney on the case. "No young person should ever have to go 
through what our clients endured."

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the Department of Labor will 
ban such group strip searches -- and all other searches of the person that 
are not based on individualized suspicion -- at Job Corps centers 
throughout the country. In addition, the government will provide financial 
compensation to the two workers who were searched.

"This is a victory for our Fourth Amendment rights prohibiting unreasonable 
searches," said attorney Greg Whitehair of Kutak Rock, who led the legal 
team for the ACLU. "It is entirely unreasonable to search or strip search 
an entire group of young people simply because government officials suspect 
that one of them might possess marijuana."

The ACLU sued on behalf of Alisha McKay, who was 17 years old and five 
months pregnant on March 30, 1997, when the search occurred. She has no 
criminal record and no history of involvement with illegal drugs.

According to the lawsuit, 25 to 30 young persons were forced to submit to 
the strip search when they returned to the Job Corps Center after spending 
a weekend outside the live-in facility. After the bus arrived at the 
Center, the suit alleges, each teenager's backpack was searched, but no 
contraband was found. Federal officials then divided the males and females 
into separate groups and the young Job Corps participants were then 
ordered, two at a time, into a small bathroom, where the searches were 
conducted.

Once inside the girls' bathroom, the ACLU lawsuit alleged, McKay and 
another young woman were ordered to stand side by side, remove their 
clothes, spread their legs apart, and squat as a Job Corps official 
inspected their genitals. McKay was told that if she did not submit to the 
strip search and body cavity inspection, she would be terminated from the 
Job Corps program "on the spot."

"A mere rumor that some unspecified individual might have drugs does not 
authorize the government to conduct a blanket strip search of an entire 
busload of passengers," said Mark Silverstein, Legal Director of the ACLU 
of Colorado. "It certainly cannot justify subjecting two dozen teenagers to 
this senseless, degrading ordeal."

According to Silverstein, the ACLU became involved in the case a few days 
after the search took place, when the organization received a handwritten 
letter from a 17 year-old victim and her mother.

"They said that they believed the strip search was wrong," he said, "and 
they hoped they could do something to make sure that this would never 
happen again to another Job Corps participant. With this agreement, they 
have made that hope a reality."

The ACLU's previous news release on the case is available at:
http://www.aclu.org/news/n033098b.html



Other Recent ACLU News Releases:

02-29-00 -- ACLU Challenges California Criminal Law That Chills
Citizen Complaints Against Police
http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/n022900b.html

02-29-00 -- ACLU Urges PA Legislature to Repeal Law Barring
Ex-offenders from the Voting Booth
http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/n022900a.html


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