East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association

Ultimately 141 organizations endorsed the five-language Communities of Color Statement re the Prop 8 Decision, which the EBLRLA endorsed on 4/27/09.

The EBLRLA encourages you to read the decision yourself, especially Justice Moreno’s concurrence and dissent at pages 151-75.

As the Communities of Color Statement reads:

“We are extremely saddened that the Supreme Court chose to uphold Proposition 8 and allow blatant discrimination to be written into the state Constitution. As people of color, we are disturbed that the highest court in our state would abandon its responsibility to ensure that all groups are treated equally under the state Constitution. Despite the structural protections that should prevent the initiative power from being used this way, the Supreme Court has allowed a simple majority vote to strip away the rights of a protected minority group. We fear not only for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members of our communities, but for all people of color and other vulnerable minority groups regardless of sexual orientation. We vow to restore marriage equality to California and to make our state a place that guarantees equality and justice for all.

However, we applaud the Supreme Court for ruling that the marriages entered into by the November 4th vote remain valid. Many of our community members are among the 18,000 couples who were able to marry in California between June and November 2008, and we are thrilled that they will continue to be treated equally to all other married couples in this state. We believe it is important that the Court understood that married lesbian and gay couples relied upon the rule of law, and that basic rights must not be granted temporarily and then retroactively taken away. However, it is bittersweet to uphold the 18,000 existing marriages while treating all other same-sex couples inequally.”

In solidarity with the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Defense Committee (“SFIRDC”) and in furtherance of constitutional equal protection and due process rights for all persons, the East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association mailed SF Mayor Gavin Newsom a letter urging him to change the SF Juvenile Probation Department’s policies to accord with the SFIRDC’s proposal.

In 2008, Mayor Newsom changed the SFJPD’s policy from one that respected the constitutional rights of all persons to one that referred youths arrested for a felony and suspected of being out of immigration status to the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration & Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) before the SF District Attorney decides to press charges and before that youth has a chance to appear before a judge.

In contrast, the SFIRDC’s proposed policy would authorize the SFJPD to refer a youth to ICE only after that youth had received a settled statement (analogous to a felony conviction in adult criminal court) and had the chance to be screened for possible adjustment of immigration status.

Copies of the letter are being sent to allied organizations and individuals interested in the due process and equal protection rights of all persons, especially our immigrant youths.

Calling on members of Congress and the Obama Administration to enact immigration policies that respect constitutional rights to equal protection and due process, and protect communities from inhumane enforcement actions in neighborhoods and workplaces, the California Immigrant Policy Center released letters endorsed by 74 organizations, including the EBLRLA, to President Obama and California’s Congressional delegation.

The EBLRLA Board of Directors voted to endorse the letters on April 10, 2009 and persuaded the California La Raza Lawyers Association follow suit.

At its meeting today, the EBLRLA board met with District 3 Board of Governors candidate Cheryl Hicks and unanimously voted to endorse her.

A past president of the Alameda County Bar Association, and a solo practitioner specialist in juvenile dependency, family law and plaintiffs’ personal injury law, Hicks has received numerous awards for service and leadership in the local legal community.

District Three covers Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

For more information on the candidates, see the California Bar Journal news story.

Responding to notice from the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the Minority Bar Coalition, the EBLRLA Board of Directors voted today to endorse the Communities of Color Statement re the Prop 8 Decision.

Aiming for a strong showing of unity between people of color and LGBTQ communities, API Equality-LA authored the Communities of Color Statement in anticipation of the California Supreme Court’s pending ruling on the Proposition 8 litigation.

As of today, almost 50 groups from Northern and Southern California have signed onto the statement, including some bar associations.

The statement will be released statewide on the day of the Court decision.

For more information, contact the EBLRLA board.