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Gagged By Big Ag: Whistleblower Silencing Bill Threatens The Employee’S Right To Uncover Workplace Wrongdoing, Tara Cooley

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment analyzes the court’s application of the standing doctrine in PETA v. Stein to demonstrate that the dismissal of a challenge to a whistleblower silencing statute because the plaintiff lacked standing is detrimental to First Amendment rights. This Comment argues that a relaxed standing requirement must be applied to future pre-enforcement challenges of legislation that aims to silence whistleblowers, and therefore chills First Amendment rights.

Part I examines the court’s relaxed application of the standing requirement to criminal statutes that chill First Amendment rights. Part II argues for a relaxed application of the standing requirement to whistleblower silencing statutes, …

Cassirer V. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation: The Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act Was Unveiled But Congress Still Has Work To Do, Nicholas Joy

Golden Gate University Law Review

Section I of this Note discusses the case’s procedural history. Section II discusses the Cassirer family story and looks at the history of America’s legislative efforts aimed at impacting Holocaust-era art restitution litigation since the end of WWII. Section III discusses the Ninth Circuit’s application of HEAR and compares it to subsequent interpretations of the Act. Lastly, section IV discusses changes that Congress could make to HEAR that would help ensure that the Act has the impact that the legislature intended.

Jessica’S Law Residency Restrictions In California: The Current State Of The Law, Bruce Zucker

Golden Gate University Law Review

Sex offender residency restrictions in the United States became ubiquitous throughout state and county jurisdictions in 2006 following the passage of the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act (“SORA”). Following passage of SORA, over 30 states and hundreds of local counties and municipalities adopted some form of restriction on where registered sex offenders could live. Although California had already placed some such limits, California voters passed Proposition 83 in November 2006, known as the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act: Jessica’s Law (SPPCA). Among other provisions, Jessica’s Law for the first time prohibited certain registered …

Family Ties Or Criminal Contacts: A Case For The Appointment Of Counsel In Civil Gang Injunction Proceedings That Affect Family Relationships, Alexander Jones

Golden Gate University Law Review

This comment argues that when an individual is targeted by a civil gang injunction that interferes with that individual's family relationships, due process requires the appointment of counsel for that individual. This comment does not argue that civil gang injunctions should be prohibited, or even that civil gang injunctions should not be able to enjoin family members from seeing each other in public. Part I discusses the problem of gangs and how civil gang injunctions have emerged to combat them. Part II explores factors considered for the appointment of counsel in civil cases and why family relationships put a personal …

Property, War Objectives, And Slave Labor Claims: The Ninth Circuit's Political Question Analysis In Alperin V. Vatican Bank, Reuben Hart

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Note will analyze the Ninth Circuit's decision in Alperin v. Vatican Bank, and propose that while the court's demarcation between property claims and war objectives claims may be a sound analytical method for addressing political question doctrine issues, the slave labor claims should not have been excluded from the scope of the property claims.

Sticks And Stones May Break Your Bones ... But Words May Break The Bank: Monetary Damages For 'True Threats' And The Future Of Free Speech After Planned Parenthood Of The Columbia/Willamette V. American Coalition Of Life Activists, Randall D. Nicholson

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Note is divided into five parts. Part I introduces the plaintiffs and defendants in Planned Parenthood and provides a detailed description of the content of the posters as well as the other evidence used to find the defendants liable for threatening speech. Part II presents a brief description of the details of, and impetus for, the enactment of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act ("FACE"), as the act provides the basis for liability. To highlight that the majority's position in Planned Parenthood did not comport with current First Amendment jurisprudence, Part III analyzes the major decisions handed …

Opening The Door To The Past: Recognizing The Privacy Rights Of Adult Adoptees And Birthparents In California's Sealed Adoption Records While Facilitating The Quest For Personal Origin And Belonging, Kathleen Caswell

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment urges that under California law, both adoptees and birthparents should have recognized constitutional rights to privacy in the information contained in court adoption files and original birth certificates. Part I examines the history of sealed adoption records in the United States and in California and how the social forces of the time contributed to the sealing of previously open records. Part II discusses the need for legislative reform by examining policy arguments supporting open records. Part III examines constitutional rights of privacy under the United States and California Constitutions respecting both birthparents and adoptees. Part IV argues that …

Torts - Cheh-Cheng Wang Ex Rel. The United States Of America V. Fmc Corp.: False Claims Act Bar May Be Overturned By Pending Legislation, Cem Kaner Ph.D.

Golden Gate University Law Review

In Wang ex rel. The United States v. FMC Corp. the Ninth Circuit held that a private individual (a qui tam plaintiff) cannot base a suit on behalf of the government under the False Claims Act on publicly known information unless she played a role in making the allegations public. In doing so, the court affirmed dismissal of a suit brought by an engineer who had direct and independent knowledge of the information underlying the allegations. The court stated that "[q]ui tam suits are meant to encourage insiders privy to a fraud on the government to blow the whistle on …

Torts - Newton V. National Broadcasting Co., Inc.: Evidence Of Actual Malice, The Editorial Process And The Mafia In Public Figure Defamation Law, Rod M. Fliegel

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.