Just after a man was indicted for murder, he gave a jailhouse interview to a reporter from The Bakersfield Californian, a local paper. In California, journalists are protected by the Shield Law, a part of the State constitution that says the media will not be held in contempt for failing... Read More »
Dr. Canfeng Lai worked at Applied Technology (Applied) for fifteen years as an engineer and then as its Electrical Engineering Director. He, along with 17 other high-level employees, was wooed and “poached” by Mattson Technology, Inc. (Mattson), a rival Chinese semiconductor chip manufacturer. Before Lai left, he was accused of... Read More »
A trial judge abused her discretion when she granted a wife seeking a divorce a domestic violence restraining order (DVRO) and ordered her husband to get an assessment of his mental health. On appeal, the court ruled that the trial judge’s order was not issued according to statutes, and the... Read More »
The State of California owns the California Exposition and State Fair (Cal Expo) fairgrounds near Sacramento. Because the State owns the land, the plaintiff, a man who sought to distribute his religious tokens there, thought he could do so because state-owned land is normally classified as a public forum. public... Read More »
Chloe Psalm Jeri Borden, a 23-year-old single mother and activist, went to a courthouse in Fresno, California, in 2019 to film what she considered to be “law enforcement harassment and misconduct.” She took pictures of people entering and leaving the building and its lobby on her cell phone while she... Read More »
An off-duty Los Angeles police officer shot and killed a schizophrenic man who shoved him from behind and knocked him to the ground when he was sampling a sausage at Costco. The officer said he “believed” the man had a gun and that he was “acting within the scope of... Read More »
Maureen McDermott was sentenced to death for the attempted murder and first-degree murder of her housemate in 1990. She filed a habeas corpus petition that asked the court to review the legality of her conviction, arguing that the district attorney who prosecuted her committed “prejudicial error” when she quoted Biblical... Read More »
When Facebook learned that the personal data of its users had been harvested by a British consulting firm named Cambridge Analytica in 2018, the social media giant violated the Securities and Exchange Act by failing to disclose the data breach to its stockholders for two years. Instead, the Menlo Park-based... Read More »
Because domestic violence can take many forms, California’s courts are often called upon to clarify the definitions and parameters of “abuse” within the meaning of the State’s Domestic Violence Prevention Act (DVPA). A new ruling by a State Court of Appeal adds one additional factor: Repeated false reports to the... Read More »
In recognition of the many low-income students who live near the California-Mexico border and who seek quality higher education, Governor Newsom signed a bill that will create a pilot program that will allow 150 students who live within 45 miles of the California border to pay in-state tuition at nine... Read More »
After California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) released water from Lake Oroville into the Oroville Dam during 2017 flood conditions, a local district attorney sued the agency for releasing harmful materials into the state’s waters. DWR said they did it in order to protect the dam. The statute that protects... Read More »
The People v. Simmons could also be named The Legislature v. The Judiciary. The conflict between the two branches of California’s government arose in a case that challenged the right of the state’s legislature to enact the Racial Justice Act (RJA) in 2020. The Act allows those convicted of crimes... Read More »
When people sign up to drive for Uber and Lyft, they must agree to submit all their disputes with the companies to arbitration. But when the government is a party to a civil enforcement action against the ride-share companies, a California appellate court has ruled that similar arbitration agreements are... Read More »
In the past few years, several studies about the positive mental health effects of “magic mushrooms” have prompted Oregon, Colorado and several U.S. cities to decriminalize psilocybin, the drug certain fungi produce naturally. California, which passed a bill legalizing the mushrooms and several other natural psychedelics in September, will not... Read More »
Plaintiff Robert Bezzina was hired by United Airlines in 1992 to be a ramp serviceman, a position in which he handled freight, mail, and baggage. Like millions of others, an order from then-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made it mandatory to wear a face mask at work in order to... Read More »
