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A portion of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.   Hurricane Aftermath and the ACLU Hurricanes Katrina and Rita seized — and shocked — our national psyche in an unprecedented way. We saw image after image of poor, black, disenfranchised Americans cast aside. But these victims were, in effect, cast aside when the issues of racism and poverty merged into one, long before a hurricane made landfall on August 29. More > > Report: Broken Promises: Two Years After Katrina > Report: Abandoned & Abused Read the Report >>   More About Rights of the Poor at the ACLU >>

State To Provide Homeless Children With Equal Access To Public Education (8/12/2008)
HONOLULU – U.S. District Court Chief Judge Helen Gillmor today approved a settlement agreement in a case brought by a statewide class of homeless children and their parents against the Hawaii Department of Education ("DOE") and Board of Education ("Board"). The settlement requires the State to provide homeless children with equal access to public education and remove barriers to their educational success.

Homeless Children Denied Equal Access to Education (10/2/2007)
HONOLULU - Calling the State of Hawaii's treatment of homeless children a travesty, civil rights groups and attorneys filed a class action lawsuit today challenging the State's failure to provide homeless children with equal access to public education. The lawsuit - which names three homeless parents and their children - charges State officials with ignoring their legal obligations to provide homeless children with equal access to a free and appropriate public education in violation of the McKinney-Vento Act. The lawsuit also charges State officials with violating constitutional requirements to provide equal access to public education without regard to the status of homelessness.

ACLU of Southern California Challenges Developer Trying to Evade City Rules (6/6/2007)
LOS ANGELES — With L. A. in a housing crisis, a downtown developer sued the city in February to evade its affordable-housing rules. Today groups filed papers in L.A. Superior Court to prevent G.H. Palmer Associates from shutting downtown’s doors to low- and middle-income Angelenos.

Judge Authorizes ACLU of Michigan Public Defense Lawsuit against State of Michigan (5/16/2007)
LANSING, MI - An Ingham County Circuit Court Judge ruled today that a lawsuit charging that State of Michigan failed to fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide appropriate defense services for those who cannot afford private counsel will proceed.

ACLU of Southern California and Public Counsel Settle Lawsuit Over Dumping of Woman on Skid Row (5/15/2007)
LOS ANGELES - Lawyers from the ACLU of Southern California and Public Counsel joined L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo to announce a settlement in our lawsuit on behalf of a 64-year-old woman found wandering on Skid Row. Delgadillo also announced a settlement of the criminal charges the city filed against Kaiser Permanente, the hospital chain accused of dumping her there. The joint settlements provide new policies that will end alleged patient dumping by Kaiser and establish new model practices for other hospitals to follow.