Can the government weaponize an anti-SLAPP statute?
On Tuesday, Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Caitlyn Kinard urged a California court to strengthen First Amendment protections for Americans who find themselves targeted by the government for their speech. Kinard argued before California's Third District Court of Appeal in a case that asks whether a government agency can use the state anti-SLAP ...
Ninth Circuit will decide whether Joshua Diemert will have his day in court
Joshua Diemert never intended to be the face of a lawsuit. When he began working for Seattle's Human Services Department (HSD) in 2013, he committed himself to a narrow goal: help Seattle's vulnerable residents find the programs they needed to get back on their feet. Joshua excelled as a program intake representative. He was in high demand acros ...
Orange County Register : California lawmakers try to revive racial discrimination with ACA 7
A number of California legislators are looking to ask the public: "When should racial discrimination be encouraged?" A constitutional amendment currently pending, ACA 7, would authorize a referendum to peel back the California Constitution's strong prohibitions on discrimination in public education. The bill, which has passed the state Assembly, ...
Can California silence a doctor-patient phone call?
Trinidad, California, sits at the edge of the continent, a small coastal town nearly 300 miles north of San Francisco. In many ways, its remoteness is part of its charm. For Shellye Horowitz, who has a rare and potentially life-threatening bleeding disorder, it comes with a serious drawback: a state law that restricts her ability to communicate wit ...
Napa County collected taxes on her wine for decades. Now it wants $4 million because she poured it.
Napa Valley, California, is home to some of the most sought-after wine in the world. Here, the elements conspire as warm afternoon sunshine and rolling evening fog slowly ripen the grapes, giving them time to develop that deep signature complexity. Each bottle of Napa wine tells the story of the vineyard and the people who gave it life. These ...
Bloomberg Law : Doctors Can’t Be Made to Check Their Judgment at Exam Room Door
The US Supreme Court's 8-1 decision that doctors and therapists don't have to march in lockstep with a state-crafted consensus isn't just a win for the First Amendment rights of practitioners. It's also a win for the First Amendment rights of their patients. We are all better off when our health care professionals can speak their minds. In Ch ...
Orange County Register : California should extend lifesaving telehealth tech options
Dr. Gene Dorio and Robin Clough spent their careers looking after their neighbors' needs. In Santa Clarita, they were the kind of couple every community quietly relies on—running programs for seniors, checking in on isolated neighbors, and making sure residents had support when things went wrong. They were the helpers. Then came their own brus ...
The woman who sued to enforce the Declaration’s promise of equality
The Declaration of Independence's bold proclamation that "all men are created equal" was the foundation on which the pillars of American ethos were built. Its principle endured, later shaping the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equality before the law. Self-evident as this truth may be, how these words would be lifted from the parchment and ...
Does the Constitution protect a cancer patient’s right to call his doctor?
When Jun Abell was just 18 months old, he was diagnosed with pineoblastoma—a rare, aggressive brain tumor. After multiple surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy, he was referred to Dr. Shannon MacDonald, a leading pediatric radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. Jun's family moved to Boston for two months while he underwent proton ...