Digital Commons Network^™

Marijuana Legalization. Initiative Statute.

Initiatives

Legalizes marijuana under state law. Creates commission to regulate and license marijuana industry. Applies general retail sales taxes to marijuana, unless medical or dietary exemptions apply. Permits excise taxes on certain marijuana sales, up to 15% of retail price, and storage, up to 10% of wholesale price. Prohibits discrimination based on marijuana use. Restricts marijuana testing for job applicants and employees, or penalizing employees for off-duty use, unless they are in safety-sensitive occupations. Permits local regulation of marijuana businesses, including ban or limit on number with voter approval. Exempts medical marijuana collectives from licensing requirements. Summary of estimate by Legislative …

Marijuana Legalization. Initiative Statute.

Initiatives

Legalizes marijuana under state law. Creates commission to regulate and license marijuana industry. Applies general retail sales taxes to marijuana, unless medical or dietary exemptions apply. Permits excise taxes on certain marijuana sales, up to 15% of retail price, and storage, up to 10% of wholesale price. Prohibits discrimination based on marijuana use. Restricts marijuana testing for job applicants and employees, or penalizing employees for off-duty use, unless they are in safety-sensitive occupations. Permits local regulation of marijuana businesses, including ban or limit on number with voter approval. Exempts medical marijuana collectives from licensing requirements. Summary of estimate by Legislative …

Three Strikes Law. Pre-1994 Strikes. Initiative Statute.

Initiatives

Provides that serious or violent felonies committed before passage of the three strikes law in 1994 do not count as strikes toward three strikes sentencing. Drops definition of crimes that count as strikes for purpose of three strikes law. Requires resentencing for certain three strikes inmates (and certain two strikes inmates) who committed pre-1994 serious and/or violent felonies. Applies savings from sentencing changes to low-income middle and high schools, California Community Colleges, University of California, and prison rehabilitation programs. Removes crime of criminal threats from list of serious felonies that may not be plea-bargained. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst …

Databasing Delinquency, Kevin Lapp

UC Law Journal

Technological advances in recent decades have enabled an unprecedented level of surveillance by the government and permitted law enforcement to gather, store, and retrieve in real time enormous amounts of data. After nearly a century of limited record-making and enhanced confidentiality regarding juveniles, these data collection practices have quickly expanded to include youth. This Article uncovers the vast extent of modern data collection and distribution about juveniles by the criminal justice system from juvenile sex offender registration and their inclusion in gang and DNA databases, to schools turned into mandated law enforcement informants, to police and courts increasingly sharing juvenile …

Childhood Sexual Abuse. Statutes Of Limitations. Initiative Statute.

Initiatives

Eliminates statute of limitations for civil actions based on childhood sexual abuse committed on or after the effective date of the measure. Eliminates statute of limitations for felony prosecutions for certain sexual crimes committed against children on or after the effective date of the measure, and for such crimes committed before the effective date of the measure for which the statute of limitations has not yet expired. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Probably minor increase in costs to the state courts, as well as the state and …

Marijuana Legalization. Initiative Statute.

Initiatives

Legalizes marijuana under state law. Creates commission to license and regulate marijuana industry. Establishes procedures for resentencing of persons convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses. Imposes state excise tax on marijuana of $.42 per gram of dried marijuana and $2.00 per gram of concentrated marijuana. Imposes temporary additional state excise tax of 2.5% on marijuana retail sales. Permits local taxes of up to 10% on marijuana sales, with voter approval. Provides for collection of marijuana taxes by Board of Equalization. Exempts medical marijuana from some taxation. Limits local regulation of marijuana. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance …

Federal Sentencing In The States: Some Thoughts On Federal Grants And State Imprisonment, John F. Pfaff

UC Law Journal

As the movement to reduce the outsized scale of U.S. incarceration rates gains momentum, there has been increased attention on what federal sentencing reform can accomplish. Since nearly ninety percent of prisoners are held in state, not federal, institutions, an important aspect of federal reform should be trying to alter how the states behave. Criminal justice, however, is a distinctly state and local job over which the federal government has next to no direct control. In this Article, I examine one way in which the federal government might be driving up state incarceration rates, and thus one way it can …

Keynote Address: Federal Sentencing Reform Ten Years After United States V. Booker, Charles R. Breyer Hon.

UC Law Journal

Hon. Charles R. Breyer gave the keynote address for Hastings Law Journal’s Federal Sentencing Reform Symposium held on February 13, 2015. Professor Rory Little provided the introduction.

Merit-Based Sentencing Reductions: Moving Forward On Specifics, And Some Critique Of The New Model Penal Code, Rory K. Little

UC Law Journal

In the Essay that follows, Michael Santos tells a remarkable story. Arrested at age twenty-three, Santos served twenty-six years in the federal prison system. While in prison, Santos published articles and books, and earned college and master’s degrees, despite what he describes as affirmatively obstructionist decisions by “corrections” personnel. Immediately after his release in 2013, Santos began lecturing at a respected state university. Today, he has a website; course materials for persons facing lengthy prison sentences; scores of supporters and mentors; and the charisma and character to hold a law symposium audience spellbound for every minute of his thirty-minute presentation. …

Incentivizing Excellence: A Suggestion For Merit-Based Reductions From A Twenty-Six-Year Federal Prison Insider, Michael Santos

UC Law Journal

America’s prison population has soared since the early 1970s, when a commitment to mass incarceration began. We now incarcerate more people than any other nation. Further, recidivism rates show that the longer we expose people to “corrections,” the less likely those people become to emerge as law-abiding, contributing citizens. As Justice Kennedy has said, our nation incarcerates far too many people, and they serve sentences that are far too long. We can improve the outcomes of our nation’s prison system by incentivizing a pursuit of excellence, creating mechanisms through which people in prison can earn freedom in gradually increasing levels …

Marijuana Legalization. Initiative Statute.

Initiatives

Legalizes under state law marijuana possession, production, cultivation, transportation, manufacture, processing, and sale. Creates commission to license and regulate the marijuana industry. Establishes procedures for resentencing of persons convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses. Imposes excise tax on marijuana of $.50 per gram of dried marijuana, $2.00 per gram of concentrated marijuana, and $3.30 per gallon of liquid marijuana-infused products. Permits local taxes of up to 10% on marijuana sales, with voter approval. Provides for collection of marijuana taxes by Board of Equalization. Exempts medical marijuana from some taxation. Limits local regulation of marijuana. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and …

Marriage As Black Citizenship?, R. A. Lenhardt

UC Law Journal

The narrative of black marriage as citizenship enhancing has been pervasive in American history. As we mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Moynihan Report and prepare to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Thirteenth Amendment, this Article argues that this narrative is one that we should resist. The complete story of marriage is one that involves racial subordination and caste. Even as the Supreme Court stands to extend marriage rights to LGBT couples, the Article maintains that we should embrace nonmarriage as a legitimate frame for black loving relationships—gay or straight. Nonmarriage might do just as much, if not more, to …

Keeping The News Domestic: Why A Toxic Environment For The American Press And Ready Access To Foreign Media Organizations Like Wikileaks Compel The Rapid Adoption Of A Federal Reporters’ Privilege, Ryan C. Stevens

UC Law Journal

In 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice subpoenaed James Risen, a Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist, to testify against one of his confidential sources in a criminal proceeding against that source. After Risen fought the subpoena and it expired in 2009, the Justice Department renewed it in 2010. The saga that followed brought a mass of media attention to the debate over the idea of a testimonial privilege for news reporters. While debates over the reporters’ privilege have raged since the Supreme Court first denied the privilege in 1972, this Note examines the overlooked effect that WikiLeaks has …

The Crime Behind The Bedroom Door: Unequal Governmental Regulation Of Civilian And Military Spouses, Krista Bordatto

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Unbeknownst to soldiers, when they sign on the dotted line, pledging to defend the freedom America stands for, they also sign away their freedom to make decisions regarding their private sex life. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) mandates that a soldier be subject to prosecution for having sexual intercourse with someone who is not his or her spouse. Although a majority of states have done away with the historical norm of criminalizing adultery, choosing instead to simply use evidence of adultery to support divorce petitions, the military continues to vigorously prosecute adulterous acts. In this regard, the military …

Uc Hastings (Spring 2015), Hastings College Of The Law Alumni Association

Hastings Alumni Publications

No abstract provided.

Effectively Implementing Civilian Oversight Boards To Ensure Police Accountability And Strengthen Police-Community Relations, Kevin King

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

The recent killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner have reignited the debate over curbing police misconduct. Due to United States Supreme Court jurisprudence and the quality of internal affairs investigations there continues to be a void in police oversight. Local governments are often reactive, instead of proactive, when implementing strategies for overseeing police misconduct. On several occasions civilian oversight boards have only formed in reaction to tragic death. When implemented effectively, civilian oversight boards can both help create just police practices and better the civilian complaint process. Unfortunately, some of these boards fail to develop into more than symbols …

How Police Brutality Harms Mothers: Linking Police Violence To The Reproductive Justice Movement, Arneta Rogers

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

The recent and highly publicized killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African American and the subsequent grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Missouri police officer who killed him, evoked mass social protest, and highly emotional and politically charged social commentary on the racialized effects of police brutality. While the crisis of systemic police violence has historically centered on the harm inflicted on victims of police brutality and, more generally, on the communities where they are from, an agitated group of feminist scholars and reproductive justice advocates have offered a more nuanced appraisal of the harm …

Exonerated, But Not Free: The Prolonged Struggle For A Second Chance At A Stolen Life, Newton N. Knowles

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

It is impossible to imagine being accused of a crime you did not commit. Worse, it is even harder to imagine a jury sentencing you to death or to life in prison when you know you are innocent. Since the rise of DNA evidence, the criminal justice system has been stunned by the newly exposed cases of wrongful conviction. Sadly, in most cases innocent exonerees are released with nothing more than an apology, if even that. Postexoneration compensation varies drastically among the several states and reentry resources are even more scarce or unavailable. Each compensation scheme on its own, however, …

Uc Hastings (Fall 2015), Hastings College Of The Law Alumni Association

Hastings Alumni Publications

No abstract provided.

After The Hurricane: The Legacy Of The Rubin Carter Case, Judith L. Ritter

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter died in the spring of 2014 at the age of seventy-six. He was a top middleweight boxing contender in the early 1960s, twice convicted of a triple homicide, but then freed by a federal court in 1985 after he served nineteen years in prison. This Article recalls his life, the homicide trials, and the constitutional issues that led to his release. The Article makes the point that had Rubin Carter's federal habeas corpus petition been adjudicated under current law, he would have remained behind bars. Congress enacted the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act in 1996. The …

Racism 4.0, Civity, And Re-Constitution, Palma Joy Strand

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Racism is deeply imbedded in our culture and can be grouped into four distinct manifestations over the multi-century arc of our nation's history. These manifestations are identified as Racism 1.0, Racism 2.0, Racism 3.0, and-the current "operating system"--Racism 4.0. Racism 1.0 and 2.0 include slavery and the reign of violence and lynching during which Whites sought to control and marginalize Blacks, primarily but not exclusively in the South. In the South, Racism 3.0 took the form of "Jim Crow," legislatively enacted separation by race with "separate but equal" rhetoric and "separate and unequal" reality. The Civil Rights Movement and its …

Mandating Discretion: Juvenile Sentencing Schemes After Miller V. Alabama, Jennifer S. Breen, John Mills

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reorienting Restorative Justice: Initiating A New Dialogue Of Rights Consciousness, Community Empowerment And Politicization, Thalia Gonzalez

Faculty Scholarship

For the last three decades scholars have explored the practice of restorative justice as a crime control mechanism in a multitude of settings. Much of the discourse has focused on restorative justice as an alternative to traditional punitive and retributive criminal justice processes. Whether restorative or punitive, criminal justice processes that seek to address harm are not apart, above, or outside social, cultural and political relations. This Article seeks to initiate a new dialogue of justice and argues that the ontology of restorative justice should to be viewed to include a liberatory moment of politicization focused on promoting equality and …

The Unconstitutionality Of The Current Housing Arrangements For Intersex Prisoners, Nicole Antonopoulos

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The perpetuation of a binary society with regards to sex creates problems for intersex persons who do not easily categorize as male or female. The current housing and treatment of intersex prisoners are based partly on this classic male-female dichotomy. This Note sheds light on sex as a spectrum, and examines the potential constitutional violations that arise from the current prison housing arrangements and treatment. It also analyzes the experiences of intersex prisoner Miki Ann DiMarco and her constitutional challenges as brought forward in DiMarco v. Wyoming Department of Corrections. Additionally, this Note suggests that intersex discrimination is a form …

Is Hobby Lobby Really A Brave New World - Litigation Truths About Religious Exercise By For-Profit Organizations, Eric Rassbach

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The Supreme Court in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act applied to for-profit corporations and that the Affordable Care Act's requirement that group health care plans provide FDA-approved contraceptives created a substantial burden on Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. Although controversial, this Article explains why the following outcry and dismay after the decision by media and scholars alike is unjustified. Hobby Lobby is merely a substantial burden case in a long line of substantial burden cases. The escalated level of attention to Hobby Lobby is not doctrinal, which is supported by the fact that it …

The New Data Marketplace: Protecting Personal Data, Electronic Communications, And Individual Privacy In The Age Of Mass Surveillance Through A Return To A Property-Based Approach To The Fourth Amendment, Megan Blass

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The Supreme Court's Fourth Amendment jurisprudence is often critiqued, particularly the Court's refusal to acknowledge the distinction between secrecy, limited disclosure, and public disclosure. The Snowden leaks only fueled the fervor. With the revelations about the National Security Agency's PRISM, XKeyscore, and similar mass surveillance programs came renewed concern and discussion about the legal and regulatory framework protecting Americans' privacy. Privacy is en vogue.

The critiques of Katz v. United States and celebrations of Justice Sotomayor's concurrence in United States v. Jones are well-worn. As an alternative, this Note proposes vesting property rights in personal data and electronic communications to …

Hands Up, Don't Shoot: Policing, Fatal Force, And Equal Protection In The Age Of Colorblindness, Zach Newman

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

This note discusses race, policing, the use of fatal force, and the Black Lives Matter movement, contextualizing it within the "prison industrial complex," the "New Jim Crow," the hegemony of colorblindness and postracialism, and jurisprudential limitations placed on Equal Protection. It argues that narrow legal reforms of policing, like body cameras or increased training, cannot be conceived of as complete solutions. Although these reforms are important, they must be connected to critiques of and actions against overarching structures of stratification, subordination, and social control in advanced capitalism. Contemporary policing is one manifestation of a deeply flawed and racialized criminal punishment …

A Free Start: Community-Based Organizations As An Antidote To The Mass Incarceration Of Women Pretrial, Amber Baylor

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Collaborations with community-based programs can potentially reduce the mass incarceration of women in jails across the country. Despite recommendations to the contrary, judges consistently require bail rather than release. As a result, indigent women who cannot pay bail are detained while their income, home, health, and family networks unravel. Ms. Baylor recommends the utilization of community organizations and services at the pretrial stage, which would result in fewer people regulated to prison as a resolution in their criminal case, or returning to jail in the future.

"If They Hand You A Paper, You Sign It": A Call To End The Sterilization Of Women In Prison, Rachel Roth, Sara L. Ainsworth

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

A 2013 investigative report on California prisons exposed the recent use of coercive tactics to induce women in prison in that state to undergo sterilization surgeries to permanently end their fertility. This is particularly striking given California's infamous history as the state that forcibly sterilized the largest number of people during the eugenics era. But California is not the only state that permits, condones, and may use public money to sterilize women in prison. This article begins with a consideration of the history of eugenic sterilization, and its troubling revival against the very women-women of color and poor women- who …

Infants In Orange: An International Model-Based Approach Prison Nurseries, Jennifer Warner

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Prison nurseries are used throughout the world as a way to strengthen the initial mother-child bond and ensure that mothers are given a chance to raise their children, even if it's behind bars. Ms. Warner outlines the differences between prison nurseries in countries like Germany, Colombia, and Kenya, and reveals that the United States is vastly different from the rest. While most countries offer prison nurseries, only nine states within the United States utilize a prison nursery, which means the majority of United States jails and prisons routinely separate newborns from their incarcerated mothers. Ms. Warner urges her readers and …