CIVIL, CONSTITUTIONAL, PRIVACY, AND PERSONAL RIGHTS

 

Civil Rights

 

AB 20 (Leslie) Disabled persons: access: technical violations.  This bill precludes commencement of an action for damages against a public facility for a de minimus deviation from a code or regulation that has no significant impact on a disabled person's right to the goods and services provided by the facility, as specified.  The bill instead provides that the remedy for a technical violation, as defined, is injunctive relief and the recovery of attorney's fees.  Status:  AsmJud.

 

AB 378 (Chu) Statute of limitation: protected classes.  This bill extends from one to three years the time within which an action seeking penalties for an alleged violation of California's hate crimes statute (Tom Bane Civil Rights Act) may be brought.  Status:  Chapter 123, 2005.

 

AB 1400 (Laird) Civil Rights Act.  This bill clarifies that marital status and sexual orientation are among the characteristics that are protected against discrimination by business establishments under the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Act).  It also imports into the Act definitions of the terms "disability," "religion," "sex," and "sexual orientation" from the Fair Employment and Housing Act, and includes, in enumerating the above characteristics, the perception of those characteristics and association with a person who has or is perceived to have those characteristics, as being within the protected categories.  The bill further declares that it does not intend to affect the California Supreme Court's holding in Marina Point, Ltd. v. Wolfson (1982) 30 Cal.3d 721.  Status:  Chapter 420, 2005.

 

AB 1574 (Jones) Housing: discrimination.  This bill authorizes the City of Sacramento and the County of Sacramento to enact local ordinances that are substantively identical to state laws prohibiting discrimination in housing as set forth in the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA).  It is intended as a pilot program for extending authority to every other city or county in the state to enact laws prohibiting discrimination in housing.  Status:  SenJud, reconsideration.

 

ACA 6 (Wyland) Public benefits.  This measure would prohibit the state from issuing any driver's license, state identification card, providing in-state tuition or fees for postsecondary education, granting any voting privileges, or providing any health, social, or other state or local public benefit to any person who is neither a citizen of the United States nor an alien lawfully present in the United States, unless the privilege, service, or the benefit is required to be provided pursuant to federal law.  This measure would also require, to the extent consistent with applicable federal law, the presentation of proof of citizenship when any person exercises his or her right to vote in this state.  Status:  AsmJud, failed.

 

ACR 29 (Leslie) Access Awareness Month.  This resolution recognizes July, 2005 as Access Awareness Month, urges all citizens to join in the recognition of the 15th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and encourages businesses and the disabled to work together in the same bipartisan spirit that accompanied the original enactment of ADA in order to achieve a greater cooperation towards compliance in this state.  Status:  Res. Chapter 99, 2005. 

 

SJR 10 (Figueroa) U.S. Patriot Act.  This measure urges the California Congressional delegation to work to repeal any provisions of the USA PATRIOT ACT that limit or impinge on rights and liberties protected equally by the United States Constitution and the California Constitution and to oppose any pending and future federal legislation to the extent that it would infringe on Americans' civil rights and liberties.  Status:  AsmFloor, reconsideration.

 

Constitutional Rights

 

AB 416 (Plescia) Civic centers.  This bill repeals the requirement that a school district charge a fee for the use of its facilities for religious services and also repeals other specified restrictions on the use of school facilities for religious services.  It further provides that policies regarding the charging of fees for the direct costs of the use of school facilities shall be applied equally to users without regard to the educational, political, economic, artistic, or moral viewpoints or the beliefs expressed by a particular group.  Status:  SenJud.

 

AB 450 (Yee) Violent video games.  This bill makes legislative findings that the prolonged exposure to violent video games may increase feelings of aggression and cause psychological harm to minors, and that the state has a compelling interest in preventing such harms.  The bill makes it unlawful for a person to sell or rent a video game that is labeled as a "violent video game," as defined, to a minor under 18 years old.  The bill also requires specified labeling for the purpose of identifying violent video games.  The contents of this bill were later inserted into AB 1179 (Chapter 638).  AB 450 was subsequently amended to deal with emergency management systems regarding animals.  Status:  AsmInactive.

 

AB 972 (Runner) Boxing: pregnancy tests.  This bill mandates that a female who is a contestant in a professional or amateur boxing match, kickboxing match or martial arts match must provide the results of a pregnancy test before the match commences to indicate whether she is currently pregnant.  This bill also requires that if the test results indicate that the contestant is pregnant, she may not compete in a boxing, kickboxing or martial arts match.  Status:  AsmJud, failed.

 

AB 1042 (Harman) Floating interest rate.  The California Constitution provides that the rate of interest upon a judgment shall be set by the Legislature at not more than 10% per annum, but permits that rate to be varied and based on interest rates charged by federal agencies or economic factors or both.  Existing statutory law provides that interest accrues at the rate of 10% per annum on certain judgments.  This bill would instead provide that interest on pretrial settlement offers accrues at the federal short-term rate plus 3%, except as otherwise provided in a written contract, not to exceed 10% per annum on those judgments, as specified.  The bill would require the Controller to annually establish the interest rate, as specified, and notify the auditor in each county of that rate.  Status:  AsmJud.

 

AB 1287 (Evans) Health studios.  As originally introduced, this bill dealt with payment bonds.  The bill was subsequently amended to authorize a health studio to limit access to persons of a single gender from certain areas where equipment for physical exercise is used or classes for physical exercise instruction are conducted.  It also prohibits a health studio from limiting access to persons of a single gender in other areas of a health studio, such as dining areas, bars, seating areas, retail sales areas, and sports courts.  Status:  AsmJud.

 

ACA 20 (Haynes) Immigration enforcement.  This measure creates a state entity to engage in the enforcement of federal immigration laws and to dedicate state funds to engage in federal immigration functions.  Status:  AsmJud, failed.

 

ACR 38 (Cogdill) Eagle Scouts.  This bill seeks to recognize the efforts of Boy Scouts who earn the rank of Eagle Scout without encouraging the organization to halt its discriminatory policies that regrettably harm individuals seeking to be scouts and excluded from this opportunity solely due to their personal characteristics.  Status:  AsmJud, failed.

 

ACR 48 (Goldberg) Girl Scouts.  This resolution commends the Girl Scouts of the United States of America for 93 years of service and for inspiring millions of girls with the highest ideals of character, conduct, and patriotism.  Status:  Res. Chapter 56, 2005.

 

ACR 69 (Goldberg) Eagle Scouts.  This resolution recognizes the outstanding efforts of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) members who earn the rank of Eagle Scout and encourages the BSA to accept for membership and leadership all qualified boys and men, without discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or religious belief.  Status:  Res. Chapter 82, 2005.

 

AJR 3 (Cohn) Reproductive rights: Roe v. Wade.  This resolution memorializes the Congress and the President of the United States to stand firm in their resolve to uphold the intent and substance of the 32-year old United States Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) 410 U.S. 113.  This resolution makes various statements regarding the effect of Roe v. Wade on women's ability to exercise their full rights under federal and state law.  Status:  Res. Chapter 83, 2005.

 

AJR 23 (Klehs) Japanese internment camps.  This resolution urges the United States Congress, including all members of the California delegation, to vote for passage of, and urge President Bush to sign into law legislation that authorizes $38 million in federal funds to preserve camps where Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II.  Status:  Res. Chapter 102, 2005.

 

AJR 31 (Evans) Speech.  This measure respectfully urges the Congress of the United States to enact a shield law for America's journalists.  Status:  SenRules.

 

SB 645 (Dunn) Mexican repatriation: commission.  This bill establishes a Commission on the Unconstitutional Deportation of American Citizens During the 1930s for addressing the forced deportation and emigration of persons of Mexican descent during the 1930's and 1940's.  Status:  Vetoed.

 

SB 670 (Dunn) Mexican repatriation program of the 1930s: state apology.  This bill expresses the apology of the State of California to the victims that were illegally deported or coerced into leaving the United States under the Mexican Repatriation Program of the 1930's and requires a plaque be placed in a designated public location to commemorate the victims of the repatriation program.  Status:  Chapter 663, 2005.

 

SB 711 (Dutton) Civic centers.  This bill repeals the requirement that a school district charge a fee for the use of its facilities for religious services and also repeals other specified restrictions on the use of school facilities for religious services.  Status:  AsmEd.

 

SJR 11 (Kehoe) Military: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.  This measure urges the Congress and the President of the United States to adopt the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2005 (H.R. 1059), that institutes a policy of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation, and to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.  Status:  Res. Chapter 108, 2005.

 

Privacy Rights

 

AB 26 (Mountjoy) DMV: commercial requester accounts.  This bill establishes, for two years, a mechanism at the DMV to provide special expedited telephone access to name and vehicle registration information to persons and organizations who have commercial requester accounts with the department.  Status:  AsmApprops.

 

AB 67 (Levine) Customer proprietary network.  As referred to this Committee, this bill prohibited a telephone corporation from discriminating between customers based upon a customer's consent, or refusal to consent, to provide opt-in or opt-out approval to the use or disclosure of, or access to, customer proprietary network information, as defined.  The bill was subsequently amended to deal with electricity rates.  Status:  Chapter 562, 2005.

 

AB 278 (Bogh) Thumbprints at commercial mail receiving agencies.  This bill would require commercial mail receiving agencies to collect a thumbprint from a consumer before providing a mailbox to him or her.  AsmJud, reconsideration.

 

AB 718 (Calderon) Personal data: drivers licenses.  This bill expands the ability of businesses to electronically collect information from a driver's license or identification card.  Specifically, the bill authorizes a retail seller to type, key in, or otherwise capture the data from a driver's license or identification card when that card is unreadable for specified purposes for which existing law already allows businesses to swipe such ID using an electronic device.  It further allows the swiping of a driver's license or identification card for an owner of a vehicle to ensure that a potential driver is licensed to drive or for complying with a Department of Motor Vehicles' requirement, or for purposes of providing financing or the arranging of insurance for a vehicle purchase.  Status:  AsmJud.

 

AB 766 (Chavez) Internet dating.  As heard by the Committee, this bill required Internet-based dating services to remove customers' profiles upon termination of their paid services.  The bill was subsequently amended to deal with WIC program vendors.  Status:  SenHealth.

 

AB 1035 (Spitzer) Public officials: Internet posting of home information.  This bill prohibits any person from knowingly hosting or providing service to an Internet web site that posts an official's home address or telephone number and prohibits any person from knowingly disclosing an official's home address or telephone numbers.  This bill also provides an official whose home address or telephone number was disclosed as a result of a violation of the prohibition a civil cause of action to recover actual damages, including court costs, loss of wages, attorney's fees, pain and suffering, punitive damages and any other relief that a court deems proper and appropriate.  Status:  SenJud.

 

AB 1741 (Judiciary) Outsourcing voter information.  This bill precludes a person who requests access to certain voter registration information, or who gathers signatures and other information for ballot petitions, from sending that information outside the United States or making it available electronically outside the United States.  Status:  Chapter 121, 2005.

 

SB 13 (Bowen) Personal information: state agency databases.  This bill permits state agencies to release personal information to the University of California or a nonprofit educational institution conducting scientific research only if the research proposal has been reviewed and approved by the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (the state's Institutional Review Board) for the Health and Human Services Agency.  This bill requires the committee to apply specified standards pertaining to data protection to its review of research proposals.  Status:  Chapter 241, 2005.

 

SB 92 (Murray) Computer spyware penalties.  This bill provides that the following persons or entities may bring an action against a person or entity that violates "spyware" prohibitions:  (1) the Attorney General, (2) a district attorney, (3) a consumer who has computer software copied, installed, or executed on his/her computer in violation of the provisions of this bill, and (4) an Internet service provider that provides Internet access services.  This bill specifies the amount of damages that may be recovered, up to a maximum of $1 million.  This bill provides that no provider of computer software may be held liable for claims brought by a business against the provider for identifying, naming, removing, disabling, or otherwise affecting a computer program through any action voluntarily undertaken if the provider establishes certain specified requirements.  Status:  AsmInactive.

 

SB 158 (Machado) Powers of attorney: social security number.  This bill deletes the social security number from the statutory power of attorney form.  This bill notifies a person on the statutory power of attorney form that a third party may require additional identification.  Status:  Chapter 251, 2005.

 

SB 234 (Runner) Taxpayer information: disclosure.  This bill prohibits the Franchise Tax Board's disclosure of a taxpayer's personal information, as defined, to the general public unless the disclosure is specifically authorized or required by law.  The bill also designates personal information regarding certain appeals to the State Board of Equalization as protected from disclosure under the California Public Records Act.  The bill further excludes from the open meeting requirements the board's consideration of proposed administrative settlements.  The bill also designates specified documents in the possession of the board as disclosable public records, as specified, and would require the deletion of specified personal information from those records.  Status:  SenUnfinished.

 

SB 355 (Murray) Anti-Phishing Act.  Establishes the Anti-Phishing Act of 2005, which makes it unlawful for any person, through the Internet or other electronic means, to solicit, request, or take any action to induce another person to provide identifying information, by misrepresenting the person to be a business.  This bill provides a cause of action against violators of the Act, and specifies the amount of damages that specified plaintiffs may seek.  Status:  Chapter 437, 2005.

 

SB 440 (Speier) Laptop encryption.  Requires any state agency, or person contracting with a state agency, to encrypt personal information that is transported via a laptop or other electronic storage device, and prohibits a business from discriminating against a customer who does not permit the business to share the customer's personal information.  Personal information includes social security numbers, medical information, driver's license number, California identification card number, and credit card or account number with an access code.  The bill exempts certain specified entities.  Status:  AsmB&P, reconsideration.

 

SB 550 (Speier) Personal information: data brokers.  This bill, the California Data Brokers Access and Accuracy Act of 2005, provides individuals with access to, and an opportunity to correct, their files compiled by data brokers.  The bill is modeled after the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and includes many consumer protections provided by the FCRA.  The bill requires data brokers to have a dependable authentication process to ensure that only permitted parties access the data files, and provides consumers with a private right of action for violations of the security provisions.  Status:  AsmB&F, reconsideration.

 

SB 569 (Torlakson) Affinity programs.  This bill, until January 1, 2011, permits the California State University (CSU), the University of California (UC), and Hastings College of the Law (HCL) to release the names and addresses of their alumni to businesses with whom they have affinity-partner agreements (i.e. commercial vendors that have contracts with the institutions to offer alumni commercial products and services, often at discounted rates).  The bill requires certain privacy requirements to be met, including requiring the businesses to maintain the confidentiality of the names and addresses of the alumni.  The institutions must provide their alumni with the opportunity to opt-out having their information shared.  Status:  Chapter 498, 2005.

 

SB 682 (Simitian) Identity Information Protection Act of 2005.  Requires certain security measures to be implemented into government-issued identification (ID) that incorporate radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, with certain specified exceptions.  The entity issuing the card must provide the holder with certain information, such as the location of the card readers.  This bill prohibits the use of RFID in four classes of widely-issued government documents (driver's license, ID cards issued to students in K-12 schools, government-issued health and medical benefit cards; library cards.)  It also limits third-party access to information, and punishes those who intentionally remotely read the cards.  Status:  AsmApprops.  The contents of this bill were later inserted into SB 768 on the Assembly Floor, where it was placed on the inactive file.

 

SB 802 (Simitian) Debit cards.  This bill prohibits any person who transacts business using debit cards from electronically printing more than the last five digits of the debit card on the receipt.  Status:  Chapter 445, 2005.

 

SB 833 (Bowen) Unsolicited advertising faxes.  This bill establishes in California the former federal opt-in requirement for junk faxes (unsolicited advertising via facsimile machines, computers, or other electronic devices).  The bill mirrors federal law governing junk faxes, as follows:  (1) it prohibits the sending of unsolicited commercial faxes to or from California or advertising using unsolicited faxes, (2) it permits persons and businesses that receive junk faxes to sue the sender or advertiser, or both, for injunctive relief, for actual damages or $500, whichever is greater, per violation, and for up to treble the damages for knowing or willful violations, and (3) it requires identifying information on any junk fax sent to or from California, including the identity of the business and/or person sending the fax, the telephone number of the machine sending the fax, and the date and time the fax is sent.  Status:  Chapter 667, 2005.

 

SB 852 (Bowen) Identity theft.  This bill extends existing law's requirements relating to notice of a breach of the security of a computer system to also include non-computerized data.  Upon the theft or other type of disclosure of computerized data containing personal information, as defined, an entity must notify any California resident whose information was acquired, regardless of whether the data was in computerized form at the time of the unauthorized acquisition.  This bill also requires the entity to report the theft to the three consumer reporting agencies and the Office of Privacy Protection.  It specifies what must be included in the notice and provides for some exceptions.  Status:  AsmB&P, reconsideration.

 

Personal Rights

 

AB 654 (Berg and Levine) California Compassionate Choices Act.  This bill enacts the California Compassionate Choices Act (Act), which would authorize competent adults who have been determined by two physicians to be suffering from a terminal disease to make a request for medication to hasten the end of their lives in a humane and dignified manner.  This language was subsequently amended into AB 651 which currently sits in the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Status:  AsmInactive.

 

AB 222 (Bogh) Public works: prevailing wages.  This bill eliminates the provisions that authorize and require the initiation and enforcement of a labor compliance program, and instead, requires an awarding body to post a notice advising workers that do not receive the prevailing rate of per diem wages for work performed on a public works project to contact the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.  Status:  AsmL&E, failed.

 

AB 581 (Klehs) Public works construction projects: wages.  This bill requires awarding bodies on public works projects to submit to the Contractors' State License Board (CSLB) the name and license number of all contractors and subcontractors awarded contracts, which CSLB must then post on its website.  The bill further states that a licensee's failure to pay wages as required by the Labor Code is cause for disciplinary action by the CSLB, with or without a finding of a violation by the Labor Commissioner, and provides that a joint labor-management committee may bring an action for violations of prevailing wage laws on public works within four years of a violation.  Status:  SenApprops.

 

SB 174 (Dunn) Violations of wage and hour laws.  This bill allows employees to act on behalf of themselves and others making less than twice the state minimum wage in recovering unpaid minimum wages or overtime compensation.  Status:  Vetoed.