ACLU Warns Costa Mesa on Grant Limits

Members of the Costa Mesa City Council, who at their last meeting ordered the city attorney to draft new policies on the awarding of arts grants, were warned in a letter Thursday of “vigorous opposition” from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California if there is “any attempt to enact” restrictive language such as that proposed by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) for the National Endowment for the Arts.

The ACLU letter was prompted by broad content restrictions proposed by two Costa Mesa residents, John and Ernie Feeney, in a letter to Mayor Peter F. Buffa.

Vice Mayor Mary Hornbuckle said Thursday that she had not yet received the ACLU letter, but that she understands the language being drafted will not include content restrictions and will be “rather generic” compared to that proposed by the Feeneys.

In wording that mirrored language proposed last year by Helms, the Feeneys proposed this clause: “By accepting this grant, the recipient agrees to neither visually nor verbally, deliberately denigrate anyone’s race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical handicap, marital status, sex or age.” The Helms proposal was rejected by Congress, although it did adopt language precluding endowment grantees from using federal funds to produce obscene work.

The ACLU said the Feeney proposal “fails both the spirit and the law of the First Amendment.” The language, the statement continued, “is vague and overbroad” and provides “no fair idea to either the artists or the government officials evaluating applications as to what art will be denied funding by the city.”