A group of disability and civil rights organizations is hoping to block Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest plan to address California’s homeless crisis by moving people with severe, untreated mental illness off of the streets into court-ordered treatment programs.

They say that laughter is the best medicine and a pair of upcoming events in Hanford will put that idiom into practice.

SACRAMENTO, CA – Like-minded advocacy and nonprofit organizations have joined together to form the California Mandela Campaign to end solitary confinement in California and support the passing of AB 280, the California Mandela Act.

A coalition of disability and civil rights advocates filed a lawsuit Thursday asking the California Supreme Court to block the rollout of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s far-reaching new plan to address severe mental illness by compelling treatment for thousands of people.

Three civil rights groups filed a petition on Thursday with the California Supreme Court to block the implementation of the CARE Courts program, which had been signed into law by Governor Newsom last year.

As Orange County and others prepare to roll out the state’s new mental health court by October, disability rights groups are moving to block its implementation.

Civil rights groups are challenging Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new court program for people with severe mental illness.

Not everyone is pleased with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bold plan to leverage the court system to connect severely mentally individuals to treatment, and on Thursday, Jan. 26, a coalition of civil and disability rights organizations took their complaints over CARE Court to the California Supreme Court.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s program requiring mentally ill Californians to undergo treatment at the request of relatives, caretakers and others has been challenged in the state Supreme Court by advocates for disabled and poor people, who say those who may have such ailments should be allowed to decide whether to seek care.

A coalition of incapacity and civil rights advocates filed a lawsuit Thursday asking the California Supreme Courtroom to dam the rollout of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s far-reaching new plan to deal with extreme psychological sickness by compelling remedy for 1000’s of individuals.

A coalition of disability and civil rights advocates filed a lawsuit Thursday asking the California Supreme Court to block the rollout of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s far-reaching new plan to address severe mental illness by compelling treatment for thousands of people.

LANCASTER — Attorneys representing Antelope Valley Union High School District students and their parents, as well as Cancel the Contract Antelope Valley, asked that Antelope Valley Union High School District take immediate steps to protect the rights of Black students and students with disabilities, including stopping the use of on-campus detention, referrals to law enforcement and discontinue segregation of students with disabilities, according to a demand letter.

Several disability and civil rights advocacy groups in California filed a lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) new court program targeting mental health concerns that he signed into law last year.

Tuesday night Kern County Board of Education approved the Central for Arts and Technology (CAAT) petition to build a charter school with a memorandum of understanding (MOU). The approval was made despite community feedback and recommendations from staff to deny it. 

Los Angeles County is on track to join the first wave of counties this year launching a sweeping plan backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to address severe mental illness by compelling treatment for people who are in serious crisis.

PALMDALE — Cancel the Contract Antelope Valley will host a town hall meeting, on Thursday, in Palmdale and on Jan. 17, in Lancaster, in regard to the long-term strategy for discipline and policing of Black students and students with disabilities in the Antelope Valley Union High School District.

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Southeast ADA Center has launched a special virtual interview series where we speak with leaders of the disability rights movement who advance the cause of equal rights through their tireless work.

Sacramento’s electric utility, SMUD, is warning power outages will more than likely accompany this week’s intense storms. In a news brief issued on Tuesday, the utility predicted Wednesday’s outages could be worse than those that followed on New Year’s Eve, when more than 180,000 customers lost power.

When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the CARE Act into law in September, he set the clock on seven counties to have the program with its signature courts up and running by Oct. 1, 2023. The graduated rollout gives the rest of the state, including Los Angeles County, until December 2024, but the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Act has already been hailed as a fix for the state’s broken behavioral health system, a road to recovery for those who are severely mentally ill.

Had Leslie Napper not finally been seen by a Black health professional, she’s not sure she’d be alive. Napper is now a passionate advocate for health equity and works defending and advising Californians with disabilities through her job at Disability Rights California as a peer professional in Sacramento.