Thread: MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS SEEK TO JOIN DAY LABOR EMPLOYER SUIT

Media organizations seek to join day labor employer suit

By: CRAIG TENBROECK - Staff Writer

VISTA ---- Several press organizations have asked to join a legal fight over whether the city of Vista should release the names of private individuals who have registered to hire day laborers.

The media groups ---- including the North County Times, Copley Press, the Los Angeles Times and the California Newspaper Publishers Association ---- are opposing a lawsuit filed last week by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial counties that seeks to keep the employers' information out of the public record.

Los Angeles-based attorney Alonzo Wickers said he filed a joint application in Superior Court on Friday on behalf of three of the news agencies. The North County Times will add its name to the application Monday, according to Dan McSwain, the paper's acting editor.


Wickers said the lawsuit threatens to erode the public's right to government records.

"While the ACLU may have good intentions here, I believe the way they chosen to pursue them is antithetical to the public's right to access," he said.

The ACLU, representing four anonymous employers, filed its lawsuit against the city after the leader of a local anti-illegal immigration group requested employer information under the California Public Records Act. The ACLU's legal director, David Blair-Loy, has said private employers could be discouraged from hiring if their personal information was posted on the Internet or used for harassment.

Anti-illegal immigration activists sometimes protest against the hiring of day laborers at a shopping center in central Vista where several men gather waiting for work. They have alleged that many of the mostly Latino workers are in the country illegally.

On Monday, Superior Court Judge Michael Orfield issued a restraining order to temporarily prevent the city from releasing the information. He said the court would have to sort out a conflict between the right to privacy and the public's right to know.

City Attorney Darold Pieper has said Vista will take its direction from the court.

The next hearing in the case is set for July 26.

Vista adopted its controversial hiring law last summer, requiring people who hire temporary workers off the street to register with the city, display permits in their car windows and present workers with written terms of employment.

More than 110 individuals have registered since then, officials have said.

Blair-Loy, the ACLU attorney, said Friday that he would take no pleasure in opposing the press if the judge grants their request to join the lawsuit. However, he added, "if the constitutional right to privacy means anything, then it applies here."

"I have spent much of my career litigating for the right of open government and public disclosure, and I think that, most of the time, the ACLU does line up with the press on public disclosure issues," Blair-Loy said. "But on occasion, we believe that the public interest in upholding the constitutional right to privacy clearly outweighs the public's interest in getting the private, personal information of private individuals."

Wickers said he doesn't believe the privacy argument is valid.

"The city has licensed certain people to employ day laborers," Wickers said. "The public has a right to know who those individuals are."

The mere fact that it may cause somebody embarrassment is not enough to defeat the public's right of access, he added.

Media organizations are not the only parties that have expressed interest in joining the lawsuit.

Joseph Turner, a representative for the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, said in an e-mail to the North County Times on Friday afternoon that his organization would file an application next week to intervene on behalf of Michael Spencer, the activist who filed the records request.

Over the last year, the city has received ---- and granted ---- five formal public records requests for the employer information, Pieper has said. They were submitted by media organizations, as well as Spencer and the ACLU.

Vista officials have also granted informal requests for the information by the North County Times.

Contact staff writer Craig TenBroeck at (760) 631-6621 or ctenbroeck@nctimes.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/07 ... _13_07.txt

"While the ACLU may have good intentions here, I believe the way they chosen to pursue them is antithetical to the public's right to access," he said.

Correct me if I'm wrong...but when has the ACLU ever had "good intentions" in respect to the good of this country and the American worker and the American citizen?

The ACLU's legal director, David Blair-Loy, has said private employers could be discouraged from hiring if their personal information was posted on the Internet or used for harassment.

That doesn't sound like trying to protect privacy, it sounds like trying to protect hiring of illegal aliens, a federal offense.

Moving to News.
Almost identical article:
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ight=vista

Ought to be interesting how this pans out.

Comments are being left after this article at the source link.
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Vista activist asks to join suit over names of day-labor employers

By: CRAIG TENBROECK - Staff Writer
July 19, 2007

VISTA -- An anti-illegal immigration activist has asked a court to join a legal battle over the public's ability to access employer information collected under the city's day-labor hiring law.

Vista resident Michael Spencer filed an application in Superior Court on Wednesday citing a request that the records be kept public. He is being represented pro bono by the Washington, D.C.-based Immigration Reform Law Institute, according to court documents.

Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties sued the city in an effort to permanently prevent Vista from releasing the names, addresses and telephone numbers of private employers who had registered under the hiring law.


Spencer said Wednesday that he has been advised by his attorney not to comment about the case.

His application to join the suit contends that Spencer has a right to verify his belief that most people who register as day-labor employers do so to hire "unauthorized alien workers." The application also alleges that the city is "recklessly aiding and abetting such illegal and exploitative practices."

David Blair-Loy, the ACLU's legal director, said that while he may not agree with Spencer's position, he won't oppose his application to participate in the litigation.

"I think he clearly has an interest in being heard and I respect that," Blair-Loy said.

Several media groups, including the North County Times, have filed a separate application to intervene in the case. They also support keeping the records public.

The next hearing is set for July 26, however, Spencer requested Wednesday that it be postponed for 30 days.

Even before filing his application, Spencer was on the periphery of the litigation. It was his June 28 public records request for employer information that spurred the ACLU to take action.

Blair-Loy has argued that private employers could be discouraged from hiring day laborers if their personal information was posted on the Internet or used for harassment.

Anti-illegal immigration activists, including Spencer, have protested the hiring of day laborers at a shopping center in central Vista where several men gather waiting for work. They have alleged that many of the mostly Latino workers are in the country illegally.

On July 9, a Superior Court judge temporarily blocked the release of employer information, stating that the court would have to sort out a clash between the right to privacy and the public's right to government records.

Vista officials have said they will take their direction from the court.

The city adopted its controversial day-labor hiring law last summer. It requires people who hire temporary workers off the street to register with the city, display permits in their car windows and present workers with written terms of employment.

More than 110 individuals have registered since then, officials have said.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/07 ... _18_07.txt

OBOY!

Immigration activist asks court to void Vista day-laborer law
3:11 p.m. August 28, 2007

VISTA – An immigration activist who wants the city of Vista to make public the names of people registered to hire day laborers is asking a judge to void the ordinance that permits casual hiring, according to court documents made available Tuesday.
Attorney Sharma Hammond of the Immigration Reform Law Institute in Washington, D.C., filed a cross-complaint on behalf of Mike Spencer, who alleges city officials and employers are “actively resisting complianceâ€

Besides getting the names made public, he wants the judge to: ...........
bar the city from consulting with the ACLU before disclosing public records;

WHAT!!?? If the city needs legal advice about their duty to provide public records they should be consulting the City Attorney, the County District Attorney, the State Attorney General. The ACLU? Never. If they are in fact doing this, they are giving the ACLU the status of an arm of the government which they most assuredly are not.