Law Commons^™

Putting Teeth Into A.B. 109: Why California’S Historic Public Safety Realignment Act Should Require Reentry Programming, Kathleen Nye Flynn

Golden Gate University Law Review

Part I of this Comment provides a history of probation reform policies in California and an overview of realignment and its preceding litigation, with a focus on components that relate to rehabilitation in post-release. Part II explores how Plata laid the groundwork for California’s current focus on reform and demonstrates how realignment hinges on changing the role of probation, slowing recidivism, and improving rehabilitation opportunities. Part III argues that the State should provide mandatory guidelines for county rehabilitation efforts as part of realignment. Finally, Part IV recommends statutory language that would make rehabilitative programming for probationers a mandatory component of …

Presumed Guilty Until Proven Innocent: California Penal Code Section 851.8 And The Injustice Of Imposing A Factual Innocence Standard On Arrested Persons, Natalie Lyons

Golden Gate University Law Review

The statutory remedy for removing an arrest from a person’s record places an undue burden upon a person who has never been found guilty of a crime. California Penal Code section 851.8 mandates that an arrested person prove her factual innocence before the arrest record may be sealed and destroyed.

This Comment examines the injustice of this section 851.8 requirement that an arrested person prove her innocence before the arrest record will be destroyed. Part I considers the probative value of an arrest record measured against its impact on the arrested person’s life, focusing on the disparate impact of arrests …

Location, Location, Location: Updating The Electronic Communications Privacy Act To Protect Geolocational Data, Alexandra D. Vesalga

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment is concerned with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act’s (ECPA’s) failure to consistently protect the geolocational data associated with electronic communications. ECPA was crafted in 1986 to protect electronic communications, a fledgling technology at the time. Today, ECPA remains largely unchanged and still controls the government’s right to access individuals’ electronic communications. Senator Leahy, who originally drafted ECPA, has called for reform of the Act, stating that “today, this law is significantly outdated and out-paced by rapid changes in technology.” Senator Leahy has proposed significant changes to the Act that would eliminate many of its outmoded standards and offer …

In Re The Marriage Of Ramirez: Sex, Lies, And California’S Annulment For Fraud Based On Fidelity, Timothy Follett

Golden Gate University Law Review

In California, a party may be able to obtain an annulment for fraud under In re Marriage of Ramirez. In Ramirez, the husband was carrying on relations with his wife’s sister prior to the marriage. The affair between the husband and sister continued after the marriage. Subsequently, Jorge (husband) was overheard stating to the sister that he loved her and “they would be together once he got his share of money and property from Lilia [the wife], and told her that he had only married Lilia to gain permanent residence status.” The trial court “held that this kind …

Revisiting Parents Involved V. Seattle School District: Race Consciousness And The Government-Speech Doctrine, Joseph O. Oluwole

Golden Gate University Law Review

Professor William M. Carter, Jr.’s trailblazing work, Affirmative Action As Government Speech, first examined the relationship between government speech and race-conscious measures. According to Professor Carter, the United States Supreme Court “has come to view race-conscious government action as a form of prohibited government speech.” This Article takes a different approach from that of Professor Carter; specifically, the Article reviews the majority, dissenting, and concurring opinions in the Parents Involved case for language indicating the Justices’ parameters for viewing voluntary race-conscious measures as government speech. This is important, given that Parents Involved is the landmark Supreme Court decision on …

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Golden Gate University Law Review

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Golden Gate University Law Review

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Thirty Minutes Or Less: The Inelasticity Of Commuting, John Andrew Brunner-Brown

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment urges the legislature to manipulate travel time in order to reduce GHGE (greenhouse gas emissions). Specifically, the legislature must incentivize mass transit by creating easier, quicker transit systems while simultaneously disincentivizing personal automobiles by increasing automobile travel time. By manipulating the travel time for various modes of travel, the legislature can effectively reduce GHGE while increasing individuals’ quality of life by creating an infrastructure that costs less and provides transportation systems not dependent on the automobile.

This Comment explains why the Sustainable Communities Act will fail to significantly reduce vehicle emissions, and this Comment proposes legislative action to …

The Inability Of Intellectual Property To Protect The New Fashion Designer: Why The Id3pa Should Be Adopted, Jessica Rosen

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment argues that Congress should adopt legislation that affords copyright protection to new fashion designers. The present state of the intellectual property regime leaves a new designer without any legal protection against blatant copying and can easily result in the designer’s business demise. Part I of this Comment provides a brief background of copyright law, as well as other doctrines of intellectual property law, and the limited protection these doctrines provide for fashion designs. Part I also explains how the limited protections afforded to fashion designs vis-à-vis intellectual property law are rarely, if ever, applicable to the new designer. …

Decoding Student Speech Rights: Clarification And Applica-Tion Of Supreme Court Principles To Online Student Speech Cases, Courtney M. Willard

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment identifies the underlying principles of Supreme Court precedent governing student speech rights and applies those principles, as appropriate, to analyze online student speech. Part I provides a background of the four Supreme Court cases governing student speech. Four factors are identified from the Supreme Court decisions that continue to guide the analysis of student speech rights: sponsorship, location, effect, and content. Part II explores lower courts’ confusion in applying the four factors to online student speech cases. Finally, Part III examines the factors applicable to online student speech and provides guidance for future courts to analyze online student …

Castle In The Cloud: Modernizing Constitutional Protections For Cloud-Stored Data On Mobile Devices, Mark Wilson

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment argues that the current state of Fourth Amendment law vis-à-vis searching cloud-stored documents on a mobile device is untenable. Part I of this Comment defines cloud storage and cloud computing, and it provides background information on the Stored Communications Act (SCA). Part II discusses the intricacies of applying the SCA to computers and email, which is to date the best analog for applying the SCA to cloud computing. Part III details the legislative and judicial solutions to the problems raised by new technology and concludes that, while new legislation is the most desirable response, in the meantime courts …

Equality Standards For Health Insurance Coverage: Will The Mental Health Parity And Addiction Equity Act End The Discrimination?, Ellen Weber

Golden Gate University Law Review

Congress enacted the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act in 2008 to end discriminatory health insurance coverage for persons with mental health and substance use disorders in large employer health plans. Adopting a comprehensive regulatory approach akin to that of other civil rights laws, the Parity Act requires “equity” in all plan features, including cost-sharing, durational limits and, most critically, the plan management practices that are used to deny many families medically necessary behavioral health care. Beginning in 2014, all health plans regulated by the Affordable Care Act must also comply with parity standards, effectively ending the second-class insurance …

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Golden Gate University Law Review

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Golden Gate University Law Review

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Maya V. Centex: Potential Liabilities For Developers Related To Speculative Injuries, Alexander Cheung

Golden Gate University Law Review

The Ninth Circuit’s decision in Maya v. Centex addresses the impacts of the sub-prime mortgage crisis on fiscally responsible homeowners. Maya is the first appellate decision to potentially permit homeowners to assert claims against developers for injuries related to market-wide decline in property values. In Maya, the Ninth Circuit decided only the narrow question of whether plaintiff-homeowners have constitutional standing to pursue claims against defendant-developers for injuries that were allegedly caused by the defendants’ high-risk marketing and financing behaviors. Although the Ninth Circuit did not resolve the plaintiffs’ claims, it held that the plaintiffs have constitutional standing to assert …

An Argument For Child Pornography Victim Restitution In The Ninth Circuit: United States V. Kennedy, Amber Pruitt

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Note argues that the Ninth Circuit erred in United States v. Kennedy by vacating restitution damages for the victims to be paid by the possessor of their images, because denying victims such restitution offends traditional understandings of the limits of proximate cause and the legislative intent behind § 2259.44 There are alternative legal tests currently used by other circuits that establish proximate cause in child-pornography-possessor cases that the Ninth Circuit should have applied in Kennedy to ensure that those responsible for harming children would not escape due liability.

Part I of this Note explains why the possession of child …

Ninth Circuit Rules Against Scientology Ministers' Forced-Labor Claims In Headley V. Church Of Scientology International, Jeffrey W. Tye

Golden Gate University Law Review

In Headley v. Church of Scientology International, the Ninth Circuit faced a particularly sensitive question involving the limits of the TVPA and the application of the ministerial exception. In Headley, former ministers brought TVPA forced-labor claims against the Church of Scientology (the “Church”). The Church argued before the district court that the plaintiffs’ labor was not forced, and that the ministerial exception applied to effectively bar the plaintiffs’ claims. The district court agreed, holding that the instances of physical abuse alleged did not raise a triable issue of fact as to the Headleys’ forced-labor claims. The court also …

Long Live The King: United States V. Bagdasarian And The Subjective-Intent Standard For Presidential "True-Threat" Jurisprudence, Kyle A. Mabe

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Note argues that the Ninth Circuit found the proper balance between protecting speech and the President by interpreting the true-threats doctrine and the construction of presidential-threat statutes to require a subjective intent to threaten, in addition to one of the traditional objective standards for true threats. The application of a solely objective standard to threats against the President leads to unsettling results that punish speech without need. Harmless but misguided individuals have been held criminally responsible for ludicrous statements based on the sensitivities of the fabled “reasonable person,” regardless of the speakers’ actual motivations for their statements. More importantly, …

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie: California's Section 11135 Fails To Provide Plaintiffs Relief In Darensburg V. Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Kate Baldridge

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Note examines Darensburg and the evidentiary problems faced by plaintiffs entangled in the bus-versus-rail controversy that are inherent to disparate-impact litigation. Part I discusses the factual background of Darensburg and relevant federal and state law concerning claims of both intentional and disparate-impact discrimination. Part II examines disparate-impact jurisprudence in the context of the unequal distribution of municipal services as background to the complexity of the issues presented in Darensburg. Part III analyzes the Darensburg opinion in light of that background and shows that the burden-of-proof issues faced by plaintiffs are illustrative of the lack of effective guidance to …

Introduction, The Hon. Morgan Christen

Golden Gate University Law Review

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Preface, Kate Baldridge

Golden Gate University Law Review

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Golden Gate University Law Review

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Golden Gate University Law Review

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