spaces in the United States". Jones and the ACLU wanted a compromise in which the LAPD is barred from enforcing section 41.18(d) (arrest, seizure, and imprisonment) in Skid Row between 9:00 p.m. and 6:30 am. The compromise plan permitted the homeless to sleep on the sidewalk, provided they were not "within 10 feet of any business or residential entrance" and only between these hours. One of the motivations for the compromise was the shortage of space in the prison system. Downtown development business interests and the Central City Association (CCA) were against the settlement. Police Chief William Bratton said the case had slowed the police effort to fight crime and clean up Skid Row and that when he was allowed to clean up Skid Row, real estate profited. On September 20, 2006, the Los Angeles City Council voted to reject the compromise. On October 3, 2006, police arrested Skid Row's transients for sleeping on the streets for the first time in months. In 2009, the Oregon ACLU opposed changing state law to permit teachers to wear religious clothing in classrooms, citing the separation of church and state principles. The ACLU's efforts were not successful. In 2018, the ACLU conceived and ghostwrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in which Amber Heard accused her ex-husband Johnny Depp of domestic abuse, leading Depp to sue Heard for defamation over the op-ed in the 2022 trial Depp v. Heard. The ACLU testified in the trial that they wrote the op-ed in exchange for a $3.5 million donation pledge from Heard, and timed its release to capitalize on the press from Heard's newly released film Aquaman. The ACLU demanded $86,000 from Depp for the cost of producing documents for the case. At the end of the trial, the jury ruled that Heard had defamed Depp with actual malice in all three counts related to the Washington Post op-ed. In June 2020, the ACLU sued the federal government for denying Paycheck Protection Program loans to business owners with criminal backgrounds. See also American Civil Rights Union British Columbia Civil Liberties Association Canadian Civil Liberties Association Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) Institute for Justice Liberty, a British equivalent List of court cases involving the American Civil Liberties Union National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee New York Civil Liberties Union Political freedom Southern Poverty Law Center Citations General references Bodenhamer, David, and Ely, James, Editors (2008).