Law Commons^™

Criticism, Confusion Over California’S Proposition 19 Property Tax Amendments, Berenice Quirino

GGU Law Review Blog

Proposition 19, the California measure narrowly approved by voters last November, created a tax break for some and tax hikes for others. Proponents of the measure tout the new tax revenue stream for the state as well as benefits for some of its vulnerable residents. In contrast, those opposed argue it disproportionately benefits wealthy, white residents while hurting people of color and low-income Californians.

The measure amended the California constitution by adding new sections to Article XIII A, which relates to tax limitations. As of April 1, 2021, Proposition 19 removes certain restrictions for eligible homeowners who transfer their home’s …

Are Parent-Child Transfers Under California Prop 19 Destroying The Ability To Create Generational Wealth?, Golden Gate University School Of Law

GGU Law Review Blog

On November 3, 2020, California voters narrowly voted to pass Proposition 19 (Prop 19) which affects how California homeowners are able to pass on property to family members. Effective on February 16, 2021, parents attempting to pass on their family home to children are now inadvertently restricting how their children can and will use the home.

Covid-19 And The U.S. Federal Government Vs. Undocumented Immigrants: How The U.S. Excludes Undocumented Immigrants From Financial Relief Amid A Global Pandemic, Golden Gate University School Of Law

GGU Law Review Blog

As we reached the Coronavirus Pandemic’s first anniversary, Americans continue to face economic troubles. The federal government has approved only three stimulus checks in the last eleven months. Contrary to public belief, these stimulus checks have been made available only to certain U.S. citizens while leaving out U.S. citizens from mixed-status families (a family that includes members with different citizenship or immigration statuses.) Furthermore, although undocumented immigrants make about 11 million of the U.S. population, they have received nothing from the federal government.

Online Learning In A Global Pandemic, Intimate Details & Prying Government Eyes: When What Was Once Private Is Thrust Into The Public Sphere The Story Of Kamauri Harrison, Malissa Bowman

GGU Law Review Blog

A global pandemic has morphed the traditional in-person classroom into a virtual one, leaving vestiges of strict classroom rules and decorum clashing with home privacy expectations. So is the case of Ka’Mauri Harrison, a 9-year-old Louisiana boy suspended for moving a BB gun while on screen during online class. Ka’Mauri’s parents and attorney maintain the boy only moved the BB gun to prevent his little brother from accessing it. However, Ka’Mauri’s teacher thought the BB gun was a real gun and reported him to the principal. Ka’Mauri was not only suspended from school, but also recommended for expulsion.

Employee Privacy Rights While Working From Home, Kourtney Speer

GGU Law Review Blog

Over the past few decades and especially under the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a merger of office and home life. More and more employees are working from home. By bringing work home, employees may be unknowingly bringing a diminished expectation of privacy inside their home as well.

Ab 1482 – Tenant Protection Act And Its Impacts On Tenants, Landlords, And The Broader Housing Market, Ava Lau

GGU Law Review Blog

With housing shortages and rent steadily increasing, many long-time tenants are in favor of passing rent control laws. Advocates argue that rent control offers many benefits, including providing security for tenants against rising rents, providing affordable housing to tenants, and protecting vulnerable tenants from displacement. Its benefits include allowing tenants to achieve better financial stability, keeping families in their homes, and preventing working-class tenants, seniors, and vulnerable members of society from being priced out of their long-time residences and neighborhoods. Without rent control, lower-income tenants would have difficulty securing and keeping a home. At the same time, landlords benefit from …

California Is On Fire – Firefighters And Prisoners To The Rescue, Cathryn Howell

GGU Law Review Blog

California is burning at a record high rate and has seen unprecedented damage due to the increase of the severity of fires as well as the increase in the duration of fire season. However, many are unaware that inmates have been playing a very important role in mitigating these fires while serving their prison sentences by helping alongside employed firefighters in battling these dangers.

Despite all of the training and first-hand experience, many inmates are unable to become employed firefighters because the California Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) will not issue them an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Certificate, which is …

Los Angeles’S Social Equity Cannabis Applicants Are Getting Left In The Weeds, Kaitlin Martinez

GGU Law Review Blog

The passage of California Proposition 64 (Prop 64) opened the door for cities to grant licenses to businesses for the purpose of selling cannabis and to legalize personal recreational use within their own jurisdiction. The City of Los Angeles, unlike other cities, delayed the licensing of new cannabis businesses while they refined and reworked regulations to include a Social Equity Program. The City acknowledged the cannabis criminalization and enforcement had long-term and disproportionate impacts to low-income and minority communities during The War on Drugs. The Social Equity Program is designed to repair those harms by creating regulations to support and …

Executive Order No. 13925: An Attempted Stop Sign On Our Global Cyber-Freeway, Robert C. Montañez

GGU Law Review Blog

The year 2020 has brought times of physical isolation and the world has turned to the Internet as a bridge to normalcy. It is not uncommon for a person to wake up and grab his or her phone and consult it (rather than a newspaper) to gather news, browse through friends’ video “stories” shared overnight, check what is “trending” via Twitter, or even stream a popular video on YouTube. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internet is more important than ever before and its key to success is its immediacy. On May 26, 2020, without any supporting evidence, President Trump …

The Gig Economy’S Battleground – California Proposition 22, Rebekah Didlake

GGU Law Review Blog

This November, California voters will have the chance to voice their opinion in the ongoing battle between app-based tech companies and the state of California. These companies want to continue classifying their drivers as independent contractors even though the state of California has determined these drivers are employees. So far, Uber, Lyft, and Doordash have spent $110 million backing Proposition 22, titled the “Save App-Based Drivers & Services Act.” These companies are hoping California voters will give them the relief they have not been able to receive through the courts or the state. This article analyzes Prop 22 in light …

Hiv Is Not A Crime, There Should Be No Jail Time, Bacilio Mendez Ii

GGU Law Review Blog

By way of personal, activist narrative, this blog post will provide broad context to the post-Stonewall legal landscape and the gay rights (now, the LGBTQ+) movement. The stage set, the writer will inform the audience of specific injustices brought upon persons living with HIV, during modern times, in the United States, simply based on their serostatus and offer solutions and actions that readers can take themselves.

This article includes links to State-by-State Statutory Information and several embedded video interviews, as well as an extensive bibliography.

Children In Foster Care: The Odds Are Against Them, Shawna Doughman

GGU Law Review Blog

Most child welfare reports that lead to removal of children from their homes are filed for neglect rather than abuse. Often, their parents want to take care of them, but are failing for one reason, or for many. Nonetheless, the lion’s share of the $30 billion annual budget of state and federal child welfare funding goes overwhelmingly to foster care and adoption services which remove the children from their parents, instead of to helping those families care for their own children.

THE S

Law In The Time Of Covid-19: Legal Considerations Amidst A Growing Crisis, Justice Tecson

GGU Law Review Blog

COVID-19 has resulted in the destabilization of several aspects of human society, which may potentially cause an influx in litigation in certain practice areas such as employment, healthcare, and contract law. Although the legal effects of the pandemic have yet to be seen in their entirety, having knowledge of the potential legal issues better prepares individuals and businesses in dealing with this increased risk of litigation and could possibly help mitigate the circumstances caused by this viral, unprecedented attack on humanity.

A Narrowly-Tailored, Technical Disenfranchisement: Risking Death To Vote Amidst A Viral Pandemic, Athena Hernandez

GGU Law Review Blog

In what has been referred to as a tragedy for American democracy and one of the most egregious examples of voter suppression in history, a United States Supreme Court ruling on April 6th made it harder for citizens of Wisconsin to cast their votes amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bill That Disrupted The Gig Economy: Ab-5 And Uber’S Troubling Response, Suzin Win

GGU Law Review Blog

Taken effect on January 1st, California’s Assembly Bill 5 (“AB-5”) has created a great deal of controversy. Supporters of the law praise it for its attack on inequality in the workplace, while gig-based companies, like Uber and Postmates, have filed complaints, alleging that it is unconstitutional. Signed into law in September 2019, the statute codifies the ruling of Dynamex Operations West Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles, a decision by the California Supreme Court that restricts employers from labeling its workers as independent contractors. In Dynamex, the court created a new standard of presumption that all workers are …

The Submerged Metaphoricality Of Legal Language, Michael Angelo Tata

GGU Law Review Blog

According to psychoanalysis in Freud and beyond, human beings have an ego ideal, or self-identity projected outward onto society, so why can’t a discipline like the Law? Like Mathematics or Psychoanalysis, Law surely has a self-identity it continually articulates and applies. If the Law would speak for itself, how would it explain this identity? One answer would be that the Law’s version of itself as logical to the point of absurdity is projected onto society as a whole, which it subjugates through the illusion of quasi-mathematical certainty. Caught up in this intoxicating mirage, its various purveyors and practitioners, like lawyers, …

The 11th Annual Chief Justice Ronald M. George Distinguished Lecture Series, Bacilio Mendez Ii

GGU Law Review Blog

To celebrate the GGU Law Review’s 50th Anniversary milestone, the event featured a discussion with GGU Law alumna, the Honorable Morgan Brenda Christen (JD ‘86), Judge at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. If you were unable to make this year’s Distinguished Lecture, below is just a snapshot of what you missed.

America Is No Longer Taking The Tired, The Poor, The Huddled Masses Yearning To Breathe Free, Victor Gonzalez, Jr.

GGU Law Review Blog

In recent years, the Executive Office of the United States has engaged in a series of unprecedented moves, making it extremely difficult for immigrants to apply for asylum. The directives from President Donald Trump serve to discourage immigrants from attempting to make the trip across the United States-Mexico border. For others, the directives serve as a stern warning.

Unconstitutionally Redefining Murder: Ca Legislature Takes A Significant Overstep With S.B. 1437, Alex Rifkind

GGU Law Review Blog

Senate Bill 1437 (“S.B. 1437”), effective January 1, 2019, substantially changed the law relating to accomplice liability under the felony murder rule (the “FMR”) and the doctrine of natural and probable consequences. State prosecutors have challenged S.B. 1437 as an unconstitutional amendment of Propositions 7 and 115, and as a violation of the separation of powers. Polarized rulings from the state’s trial courts suggest a dispositive California Supreme Court decision is forthcoming to address the divide. Social policy considerations weigh heavily on the controversial issues engendered by this bill and will likely influence adjudication of the legislature’s authority to …

Fair Pay To Play Act: End Of Amateurism?, Isabella Borges

GGU Law Review Blog

The NCAA has seen its fair share of controversy concerning player compensation, whether it be through lawsuits such as the O’Bannon case, former NCAA athletes complaining of hunger during their time in college, or even NBA star LeBron James’s documentary “Student Athlete.” However, no extreme policy changes have emerged from the endless scrutiny of the NCAA’s rules of prohibiting its student-athletes from receiving compensation from the use of their names, images, and likeness, among other things. The NCAA argues compensation would capsize amateurism by turning student-athletes into professionals, putting an end to amateurism in the NCAA all …

The California Consumer Privacy Act: The Illusion Of Control?, Justin Trimachi

GGU Law Review Blog

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) goes into effect on January 1, 2020. On the surface, the purpose of the CCPA is to give consumers “rights” to control how businesses monetize their personal information. However, the extent of those “rights” is somewhat vague in the language of the statute.

Eighth Amendment Protection In The 21st Century, Daniel Sorkin

GGU Law Review Blog

In Timbs v. Indiana the Supreme Court considered whether the Eighth Amendment’s bar on “excessive fines” is incorporated against the states under the Fourteenth Amendment. Timbs v. Indiana addressed another persistent question that has appeared on bar exams for years: “What provisions in the Bill of Rights have not yet been 'incorporated' against the States?”

The Right To Housing: Possessing Home In California, Golden Gate University School Of Law

GGU Law Review Blog

In an area where the median home costs $820,000, San Francisco’s Bay Area is currently experiencing an affordable housing crisis. Unsurprisingly 25,951 people lack stable housing in the Bay Area. A recent Brookings Institute income inequality study ranked the San Francisco metropolitan area (including San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin Counties) the third highest in income inequality in the United States. In the Bay Area, where the median fair market rate for a two bedroom apartment is $3,121, the highest earners were making eleven times more than the lowest.

Among those most affected by the rising rents are minority …

The Moral Character Evaluation: Proving That Your Past Does Not Define Your Future, Allyson Mccain

GGU Law Review Blog

To the extent that the character and fitness evaluation continues to exclude those candidates who have not shown remorse or rehabilitation, it remains essential to ensuring the integrity of the legal profession. However, it is unfair to presume that a blemish on an applicant’s record suggests a lack of good moral character, until proven otherwise. Past mistakes and errors in judgment do not automatically indicate that an individual is unfit to practice law. Nor does the lack of “sanctionable conduct” in one’s past conclusively prove that the individual will uphold the integrity of the profession.

Paga Saves The Day Against Forced Arbitration, Letty Chavez

GGU Law Review Blog

Arbitration agreements are becoming increasingly common in the employment setting, with over 60 million Americans being bound by one. In the private sector, 56.2 percent of nonunion employees are bound by mandatory arbitration agreements. In California, 67.4 percent of workplaces are subject to mandatory arbitration. Employees are less likely to win their cases in arbitration than in court. The increase in PAGA lawsuits in recent years is likely associated to the increase in mandatory arbitration agreements. As more employees find themselves without access to the courts, PAGA claims offer the only remaining recourse for employees to have their day in …

California Wine Industry Feels The Effect Of Trump, Golden Gate University Law Review

GGU Law Review Blog

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” This was much of the tone about immigrants during Donald Trump’s speeches on his campaign trail. Since President Trump took office, it seems that immigration has propelled to the forefront of political debates and water cooler talk. Most of the headlines regarding immigration that have dominated our screens have been about children being separated at the border, Trump’s disapproval of sanctuary cities, or Trump’s incessant demand to …

A Victory For Labor Standards Overshadowed By Trumps Immigration Policies, Golden Gate University Law Review

GGU Law Review Blog

On June 22, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that deportation cannot be used as retaliation against undocumented workers who exercise their labor rights. Despite this victory, recent immigration policies discourage undocumented workers from exercising their labor rights.

The California Consumer Privacy Act Of 2018: Are Your Interests At Stake?, Golden Gate University School Of Law

GGU Law Review Blog

In recent years, the Supreme Court has recognized the downturn of consistent and reliable Establishment Clause jurisprudence. The inconsistency of opinions and the often hostile outcomes have left the Establishment Clause in “shambles”. Justices have commented that there is no other area of law in more desperate need of repair than the Establishment Clause. One reason posited for the current state of confusion is that the Establishment Clause was never intended to be incorporated. Because of this, even the Supreme Court cannot agree on a single test or even consistently apply the many tests it currently employs.

Restoring The Establishment Clause To The States; Restoring Religious Tolerance, Golden Gate University Law Review

GGU Law Review Blog

In recent years, the Supreme Court has recognized the downturn of consistent and reliable Establishment Clause jurisprudence. The inconsistency of opinions and the often hostile outcomes have left the Establishment Clause in “shambles”. Justices have commented that there is no other area of law in more desperate need of repair than the Establishment Clause. One reason posited for the current state of confusion is that the Establishment Clause was never intended to be incorporated. Because of this, even the Supreme Court cannot agree on a single test or even consistently apply the many tests it currently employs.

The California Consumer Privacy Act Of 2018: Are Your Interests At Stake?, Katie Christensen

GGU Law Review Blog

California residents and those who do business in California are advised to stay abreast of the California Consumer Privacy Act, as there may be major textual revisions – or Federal pre-emption – before the act goes into effect on January 1, 2020.