News

Left Return

Continued from page 3

In addition to the monitor's office in Austin, as well as others in Texas cities, the Police Accountability Project is pushing for state legislation to make police disciplinary files open to public records requests, and for a bill requiring all Texas police departments to keep racial profiling statistics, something that is already being done in Houston and Arlington. (Representatives of the Austin Police Association did not return calls from the Houston Press.)

" Prison guard brutality lawsuits: Through volunteer attorneys such as Yolanda Torres of Dallas (see "Unnecessary Roughness," by Steve McVicker, October 12, 2000) and Robert Rosenberg of Houston (see "What Really Happened to Rodney Hulin?" by Michael Berryhill, August 7, 1997), the ACLU is aggressively investigating the alleged abuse of inmates by Texas Department of Criminal Justice guards. Both trials got under way this month.

" School prayer in the Santa Fe Independent School District: Last June, in a 6-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court widened the separation of church and state by deciding not to allow school-sponsored prayers before football games in Santa Fe. The winning argument was presented to the high court by Galveston attorney Anthony Griffin on behalf of the ACLU, which had agreed to represent four families opposed to school-sponsored prayer. Despite the high court's ruling, however, this fall's gridiron battles in Santa Fe were marked by so-called spontaneous group prayers. Obviously, say ACLU officials, the school prayer battle is far from over in Santa Fe and other cities around the state.

"We are seeing in Texas explicit attempts to bring the clergy into the classroom," says state board member Kahne. "Even after the Supreme Court has said you can't bring church onto the football field, we are still seeing attempts to bring the clergy into the classroom. We are going to be fighting this for the next decade. It's not going to go away easily. But what is important is that we are making that fight."

" The Texas Stand Down Project: In August Harrell announced the formation of the ACLU's anti-death-penalty group, headed by Steve Hall, once a spokesman for former Texas attorney general Jim Mattox, who oversaw numerous executions. In addition to seeking a moratorium on the death penalty, the project will push for legislation that gives juries the option of sentencing convicted killers to life without parole. The project also is seeking to abolish executions of the mentally retarded and will scrutinize the court-appointed legal representation of indigent defendants across the state.

"I believe if we had something called life without parole, and as a criminal defense lawyer I could tell a jury that that was an option, there would be less people getting the death penalty," says Gladden. "There would be no need for it. There are some who fear that there will be just a bunch of people getting life without parole, and there will still be just as many people getting the death penalty. I don't believe that."

" Banned and challenged books in Texas public schools: The ACLU continues to bring attention to books barred or questioned by school districts across the state. There are some surprising volumes on the list: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is outlawed by both the Houston and Fort Worth ISDs. Joshua school officials will not allow students to read One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Snow Falling on Cedars is outlawed in the Boerne ISD.

" Homeowners' rights: In perhaps one of the oddest alliances in some time, ACLU board member Kahne is representing longtime Houston activist and gadfly Geneva Kirk Brooks in her fight to rein in the power of homeowners associations. Brooks is perhaps best remembered as a leader, in the late 1970s, of a group known as Citizens Against Pornography. Although her position then probably would have put her at odds with the ACLU, these days she and Kahne see eye-to-eye about the evils that allegedly can be wrought by homeowners groups.

"Community associations are a foreclosure racket," says the always quotable and colorful Brooks. Her attorney agrees.

"It's just a real scam, for a lack of a better word," says Kahne. "The homeowners associations are little nonprofit corporations that sometimes are headed up by petty tyrants that use their positions to take people's property. They not only control what the owners can and can't do with their property and how tall their grass is and what color their front door is, they also indulge in nonjudicial foreclosures."

In November state District Judge Patrick Mizell of Houston ruled that the Northglen Association had acted improperly in some of its dealings with Brooks, who owns a rent house in the Northglen subdivision. However, the judge refused to rule on her and Kahne's contention that the Texas Property Code, which gives homeowners associations their power, is unconstitutional.

"The Court believes," wrote the judge, "that any such decision should be made by the Court of Appeals or the Texas Supreme Court." Which is exactly where Brooks and Kahne are headed, in addition to the Texas legislature.

And when they get there, they will likely find Will Harrell.

On the day before Al Gore concedes the presidential election -- for the second and final time -- to George W. Bush, the Texas state capitol resembles an academy for Secret Service agents. They give longhaired Will Harrell the fish-eye treatment as he makes his way to the office of State Senator Mike Moncrief of Fort Worth. Moncrief has agreed to sponsor an ACLU-backed bill that would prevent law officers from jailing citizens for crimes that do not carry a penalty of jail time. Later Harrell meets in the capitol's basement cafeteria with Stetson-wearing Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas chapter of the NAACP. The two activists agree to work in tandem on numerous pieces of legislation, including the proposed moratorium on the death penalty, a bill on racial profiling -- which they refer to as government-mandated racism -- and funding the legal representation of indigents.

Although Bledsoe has just returned from Florida, where he helped file lawsuits on behalf of African-American voters who claim their constitutional rights were violated by being denied access to the polls, both he and Harrell seem to sense that another Bush presidency is imminent. In Harrell's opinion, this is both good and bad for the civil liberties business. Obviously, he opines, Bush will likely have the opportunity to appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices who do not have the same interpretation of the constitution as the ACLU does. But Harrell also believes there is reason for optimism.

"I think he will make an absolute buffoonery of his political party and his political movement," says Harrell with a smile. "And it will be a whole lot easier to attack and demonstrate what's wrong with him at the helm. The international spotlight will really bring world and national attention on the issues of Texas, the death penalty being No. 1 among them. His record in Texas will follow him to the White House. And that will add fuel to our fire."

And, Harrell hopes, more money and members to the ACLU rolls.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4