JW Fights ACLU Intervention in Law Suit

JW Fights ACLU Intervention in Law Suit

ACLU Asks Court to Allow Illegal Immigrants to Intervene in Judicial Watch’s Special Order 40 Lawsuit Hearing Scheduled for September 20 in the Superior Court for the State of California, County of Los Angeles

(Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation of Southern California has filed a motion to allow illegal immigrant and other groups to intervene in Judicial Watch’s lawsuit against the LAPD over “Special Order 40,” a set of policies that prevents police officers from inquiring about an individual’s immigration status and communicating freely with federal immigration officials (Harold P. Sturgeon v. William J. Bratton, et al., Case No. BC351646). Judicial Watch filed a motion opposing the attempted intervention. A hearing on the matter is scheduled on September 20, 2006 in Superior Court for the State of California, County of Los Angeles.

“Proposed Intervenors [the ACLU’s clients] should not be allowed to use this Court and its process to help undocumented aliens violate the law, and granting them intervenor status to do so would turn the law on its head,” Judicial Watch argued in its court filing opposing the ACLU. “Clearly, assisting undocumented aliens to remain undetected by federal immigration officials and helping undocumented aliens to secure unlawful employment do not constitute proper, lawful interests.”

The ACLU is representing Break the Cycle, Los Jornaleros, El Comite de Jornaleros, and El Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California. These organizations have admitted, according to Judicial Watch’s court filing, “that they provide some form of assistance to undocumented aliens and that their members include undocumented aliens who fear discovery of their illegal immigration status.” As such, Judicial Watch argues, the ACLU clients “possess neither a statutory right to intervene nor the type of interest…at issue in this lawsuit that would satisfy the requirements of mandatory intervention under” California law.

Judicial Watch filed its Special Order 40 lawsuit on behalf of Harold P. Sturgeon, a City of Los Angeles taxpayer, on May 1, 2006. The lawsuit alleges that Special Order 40 violates both federal and California law. It seeks a judgment declaring that Special Order 40 is illegal and an injuction preventing the LAPD from spending any additional taxpayer funds to carry out or enforce the policy.

"The ACLU promotes the argument that illegal aliens should be able to seek illegal work on street corners without fear of the police,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The ACLU has once again set itself against law and order.”