LEGISLATIVE ROUNDUP: Victories and Setbacks

Five bills supported by the ACLU-NC became state law, constituting victories for domestic partners, reproductive rights, immigrant tenants, public school students, and individual privacy. Three others, however, received Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s veto, becoming setbacks for opponents of wrongful criminal convictions.

Governor Schwarzenegger signed the following ACLU-NC supported bills into state law on Oct. 16, 2007:

CA AB 102: Marriage: Domestic Partnerships: Name Equality Act guarantees that men and women are treated equally when they choose to adopt or not adopt a new name upon marriage or registration as domestic partners. The law codifies equal name-change options available to everyone, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, who gets married or registers as a domestic partner in California. Previously, a male spouse who wished to adopt his wife’s last name had to go to court.

CA AB 629: Sexual Health Education Accountability Act requires any state-funded, community-based program providing education to prevent adolescent or unintended pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections, to meet specified requirements, including that the information is medically accurate and age-appropriate.

CA AB 976: Tenancy: Tenant's Characteristics prohibits local governments from compelling landlords to inquire and/or report information about the immigration or citizenship status of a tenant. Likewise, it prohibits landlords from voluntarily conducting such an inquiry or from requiring that tenants or occupants make any statements about immigration or citizenship status.

CA SB 405: Schools: Curriculum: Opportunities for Pupils reforms middle and high school counseling programs to ensure that students receive individualized review of their career goals and are informed not only about high school graduation requirements, but also of college eligibility requirements and career technical opportunities in their schools.

CA SB 362 Radio Frequency Identification makes it illegal to require citizens to accept RFID implants. California employers cannot compel anyone to have an RFID device implanted under his or her skin as a condition of receiving something—such as a paycheck or government benefits. Schwarzenegger signed the bill authored by state Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) on Oct. 15; it will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2008.

The governor vetoed the following criminal justice-related bills, also on Oct. 16:

CA SB 511: Interrogation: Recording would have required the electronic recording of custodial interrogations for violent felony suspects, in order to reduce the number of wrongful convictions resulting from false confessions.

CA SB 609: Criminal Procedure: Informants would have stipulated that a defendant could not be convicted based upon the uncorroborated testimony of an in-custody informant, reducing the likelihood of wrongful conviction as a result of false informant testimony.

CA SB 756: Criminal Investigations: Eyewitness Identification would have required the Attorney General to develop “best practices” guidelines regarding eyewitness identifications, in order to decrease the number of misidentifications. The guidelines were to be transmitted to the Legislature with recommendations for any legislation needed to enforce the guidelines.

Two other bills supported by the ACLU-NC were held over for the next legislative year:

CA SB 1019: Peace Officer Records: Confidentiality would overturn the California Supreme Court in Copley Press v. Superior Court, that blocked the public from access to police misconduct records. As a result of the ruling, civilian oversight agencies have been forced to stop holding public hearings on complaints about police misconduct. The bill would allow police oversight agencies throughout the state to function as they did prior to the decision, and with regard to internal affairs cases, would provide discretion to the employing agency to release limited summary information in sustained cases of serious misconduct. SB 1019 passed the Senate but was held up in Assembly Committee on Public Safety.

CA SB 28, 29, 30, & 31: Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) Reform Bills have become two-year bills. SB 28, 29 & 30 passed Senate and are pending on the Assembly floor. SB 31 is still in the Senate Public Safety Committee. • SB 28 and 29 place a three-year moratorium on the use of RFID devices in California driver licenses and in the school identification cards of students respectively. • SB 30 places restrictions and protection measures on using RFID tags in government identity documents. • SB 31 makes “skimming” or accessing the information on RFID tags without authorization a crime.