Image by Vitalii VodolazskyiOn occasion, a reader may find in a bill in the California Legislature that contains in the text of the measure a phrase similar to the following: “notwithstanding any other provision of law…”. What does this phrase mean? Why is it used? What is its purpose in a California bill?
Image by BCFCDefined terms can play an important role in any legislation. Defining words or phrases is done to provide the reader of the legislative or statutory text with clear guidance regarding how those words or phrases are to be interpreted and applied in the context of that specific text.
Image by Andrey_PopovWhether a bill proposes to make a substantive or non-substantive change in law has several implications. Inquiring legislative minds want to know.
Image by MehaniqMICHELI FILES: It is not the role of the legislative or executive branches of government to determine a statute’s constitutionality. Rather, that role is reserved to the third branch of government – the judicial branch.
Environmentalist Heidi Sanborn.(Photo: Screen capture via YouTube, from California insider)California recently approved three sweeping environmental laws: SB 54, SB 343, and AB 1201. Hopefully, this game-changing legislation will shape national policy about recycling, composting, plastic pollution, and human health. We have many people to thank for the recent measures to reduce plastic pollution and increase plastic recycling, but we citizens rarely know who. Heidi Sanborn is one of those people.
Pigs confined in cages, prior to slaughtering and processing. (Photo: vinsenssandy, via Sutterstock)OPINION: A case before the U.S. Supreme Court — derived from a California ballot measure — could decide the fate of current and future state laws related to the climate crisis, harmful compounds in consumer products, and even the safety of baby food. The case involves Proposition 12, which was passed in landslide fashion in 2018 by 63% of California voters.
A woman in a medical ward ponders her situation. (Photo: Boyloso, via Shutterstock)Lee Davis says flatly that without involuntary treatment for her raging psychosis, she would be dead. “It saved my life.” A mental health activist who chairs the Alameda County Mental Health Advisory Board, which advises the board of supervisors and county officials on mental health policy, Davis acknowledges hers is not a popular view among disability rights advocates,
The Assembly chamber at the state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Felix Lipov, via Shutterstock)California courts are occasionally faced with scrutinizing the lawmakers’ decisions to label some bills as urgency statutes and others as special statutes. It may sound unexciting, but the reality is this: The courts’ rulings can affect millions of Californians.
Gov. Gavin Newsom shown at an earlier Capitol briefing. (Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli)Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled an unprecedented $100 billion economic recovery package for California that taps state and federal money, while providing a new round of $600 stimulus checks to most Californians and covering missed payments for millions of renters.
The state Capitol in Sacramento, the seat of California government. (Photo: Always Wanderlust, via Shutterstock)Landmark legislation to improve California’s notoriously fractured mental-health system has been passed and sent to the governor in the waning days of a chaotic legislative session disrupted by the COVID pandemic. “This package of legislation is a game-changer,” said Maggie Merritt, executive director of the Steinberg Institute.