Cases in our current docket that hold promise in establishing important contemporary precedents in protecting and defending civil liberties.
of a strong defense of civil liberties.
Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. (2007) Can private companies be held responsible for their actions in helping the CIA fly kidnapped terrorism suspects to foreign countries where they are imprisoned and interrogated under torture? Working with the national ACLU, the ACLU-NC sued San Jose-based Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing Company, charging that Jeppesen knowingly provided logistical services to the CIA in connection with the clandestine flights that took our five clients to secret overseas locations where they were subjected to torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Jose under the Alien Tort Statute, which permits non-U.S. nationals to sue in American courts for violations of the law of nations or a United States treaty. The government asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that litigation over the CIA’s program, known as extraordinary rendition, would harm national security by revealing “state secrets.” As the ACLU pointed out in its opposition to the motion, a great deal of detailed information about the rendition program is already in the public domain, including a sworn statement by a former Jeppesen employee that shows Jeppesen knew it was helping with “torture flights.” The court granted the government’s motion to dismiss the case on Feb. 13. The ACLU has appealed the decision.
Is the ban on marriage for same-sex couples unconstitutional? The ACLU-NC and co-counsel are representing a group of committed lesbian and gay couples denied the protections of marriage in California. Plaintiffs also include Equality California and Our Family Coalition. After the California Supreme Court ordered San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004, the ACLU and co-counsel filed our case, which became consolidated with other cases into In re Marriage Cases. In 2005, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer ruled that denying same-sex couples the freedom to marry violates the state constitution. The California Court of Appeal then reversed the ruling. The case is now pending before the California Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on March 4. Our co-counsel are the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, Heller Ehrman LLP, and the Law Office of David C. Codell.counsel filed a brief with the California Supreme Court. The brief asks the court to declare that the law that prevents same-sex couples from marrying is unconstitutional.
ACLU v. AT&T and Verizon (2008)
In May 2006, the three California ACLU affiliates sued AT&T and Verizon Communications on behalf of their members and a distinguished group of plaintiffs, including former member of Congress Tom Campbell, noted criminal defense attorney Dennis Riordan, other defense attorneys, journalists, and members of the clergy and the medical profession. The suits allege that AT&T and Verizon have been turning over confidential customer calling records to the National Security Agency in violation of state constitutional and statutory provisions. The lawsuits are part of a much larger group of lawsuits filed across the country against the telephone companies that gave the NSA access to the calling records and contents of the electronic communications of millions of their customers. Those lawsuits have now all been consolidated in federal district court in San Francisco. The government has asked the court to dismiss these cases, arguing that letting the truth out about how the telephone companies help the government spy on innocent Americans will harm national security. Those motions are currently under submission.
Kincaid v. City of Fresno (2007)
Do homeless people have the same right as everyone else to property and protection from unreasonable seizure of their possessions? For years, the City of Fresno raided homeless people’s tents and shelters, destroying personal belongings, clothing, medication, tents and blankets, as well as irreplaceable personal possessions such as family photographs, personal records, and documents. The ACLU-NC, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and the law firm of Heller Ehrman LLP sued Fresno on Oct. 17, 2006, for violating its homeless residents’ constitutional rights. The federal district court issued a preliminary injunction to stop the unlawful seizure and destruction of property, ruling that the city had been violating our clients’ rights to property under the Fourth and 14th Amendments.
Landmark Settlement with Bishop School District (2007)
Bishop, in eastern California, has roughly 3,400 residents, with 1,500 Paiute Tribe members living on a nearby reservation. Parents reported to the ACLU-NC that on Oct. 11, 2005, a School Resource Officer manhandled several Native-American students at Bishop Union Elementary School District, causing one to lose consciousness. The vice principal relied only on the officer’s account, suspending the students involved. Filing Public Records Act requests with BUESD, the ACLU soon uncovered a long history of harsh disciplinary treatment of Native-American students by school officials. Negotiations involving parents and the school district led to a groundbreaking settlement on Sept. 12, 2007, instituting reforms that protect Native-American children from racial discrimination.
Kebin Reyes v. Alcantar (2007)
On April 26, 2006, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, the ACLU of Northern California, the ACLU Immigrant Rights’ Project, and the law firm of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP, filed a lawsuit on behalf of a U.S. citizen child who was unlawfully detained for ten hours by immigration officials. Kebin Reyes was taken into custody in the early hours of March 6, 2007 when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) agents raided his home in San Rafael, California. He was taken into custody along with his father, Noe Reyes. Kebin was six-years-old at the time of the incident.
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