The PJLC Takes the Lead on Fighting OC Gang Injunctions in Court

Though most counties have abandoned their gang injunction programs, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer is one of the few remaining DAs in California who continues to pursue these costly, ineffective, unconstitutional forms of harassment. At the end of 2020, the OCDA served legal papers on nine young men, seeking to make them subject to a gang injunction issued by the court in 2014. With the help of the grassroots organization Chicanxs Unidxs, the PJLC met with several of the young men and agreed to represent one of them in court. Another young man is being represented by a pro bono attorney from the National Lawyers Guild.

The PJLC has appeared in court for this young man several times, filing hundreds of pages of legal briefs. In addition to arguing the due process violations rampant in gang injunction cases like this one, the PJLC also moved the court to dissolve the entire injunction on the basis that the OCDA is unlawfully using the civil court system to bypass the protections afforded people in the criminal system.

The motion to dissolve the injunction was just denied by the trial court and the PJLC is representing our client in appealing that decision. A favorable decision in the Court of Appeals could end gang injunctions in Orange County and possibly all of California.