Constitutional Law

There was no due process violation in the city's hiring outside counsel on an hourly fee basis to prosecute nuisance abatement suits.  Also, a fee award to the City as the prevailing party in the litigation was not an undue burden on the defendant's First Amendment right to petittion government by defending the nuisance abatement suit.  Health & Safety Code… Read More

Despite the unconstitutional nature of the CFPB's original structure, the agency's civil investigative demand was enforceable since the current removable director of the agency had ratified the issuance of the CID.  The constitutional infirmity related solely to the CFPB's director, not to the agency itself or its staff which had issued the CID.  Seila law could not resist the CID… Read More

In 2018, the California electorate adopted Prop. 11 which enact Lab. Code 880 et seq., providing that ambulance employees must remain reachable by a communications device during their work shifts, including rest breaks. Lab. Code 889 expressly made the new law applicable to any and all actions pending on, or commenced after October 25, 2017. This decision holds that the… Read More

Under Nev. Rev. Stat. 116.3116, a homeowner's association is allowed a superpriority lien for certain HOA dues and maintenance expenses.  This decision holds that the statute does not offend the US Constitution's Takings Clause since no governmental entity takes the value of liens subordinated to the HOA's superpriority lien.  It also holds that the statutory notice of foreclosure sent by… Read More

The US Government grants NGOs funds to fight HIV/AIDS abroad, but only if they agree to have a policy expressly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.  The Supreme Court held that this requirement violated the First Amendment insofar as it applied to American NGOs.  But this decision holds that the requirement does not offend the Constitution insofar as it applies to… Read More

Plaintiff stated a viable 1983 claim by alleging a city and its towing company misapplied the proceeds when they seized and sold the plaintiff's car for a parking violation. Read More

California’s elimination of the personal belief exemption for immunization requirements for children did not violate the state constitution's protections for the free exercise of religion, due process, privacy, and public education. Read More

There are no circumstances under which a records custodian can resist a subpoena for a collective entity’s records on Fifth Amendment grounds. Read More

Anti-SLAPP motions to strike may not be filed in limited jurisdiction cases. Read More

Student accused of sexual assault was denied basic due process by university disciplinary board by withholding evidence of antidepressant drugs being taken by the victim until the last minute and barring accused student’s attorney from participating in the proceedings while allowing university’s own counsel to act in a prosecutorial role. Read More

First Amendment’s ministerial exception barred seminary dean-plaintiff’s claims for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, but not breach of contract, since the latter is a matter of compliance with a faculty handbook and hence does not turn on an ecclesiastical inquiry or excessively entangle the court in religious matters. Read More

Plaintiff, a property owner, had additional administrative remedies he could exhaust after the city changed an ordinance that had previously kept him from getting a building permit. Read More

Ads for musical, political or artistic works are not categorically excluded from protection under the Anti-SLAPP statute, but still must concern a matter of public interest to be protected; here, an ad for Michael Jackson’s posthumous record album was protected because its claim Jackson was the lead singer on three tracks addressed a matter of public interest. Read More

Washington's unlawful detainer statute violates due process insofar as it permits summary issuance of a writ of restitution without hearing if the landlord claims non-payment of rent and the tenant fails to file a timely, sworn written statement in dispute. Read More

The Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act is not unconstitutionally vague merely because some types of consumer reports fall within its scope as well as within the scope of the Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act, and an employer seeking any information about a consumer other than creditworthiness can easily comply with both statutes simply by complying with the stricter requirements of… Read More

College’s disciplinary procedures did not pass due process muster because student accused of assault did not have the opportunity to cross-examine the accuser either directly or indirectly, and fact-finder did not have the ability to watch accuser testify so as to assess her credibility. Read More

A state law requiring public employees who are non-union members to pay agency fees to the union that is the certified bargaining agent for employees in their work unit violates the First Amendment by compelling the employees to fund speech with which they may not agree. Read More

Under the Commerce Clause, the states’ power to impose sales taxes on sellers is limited only by the requirement of a substantial nexus to the taxing state; the seller’s physical presence in the state is no longer required for the imposition of sales tax. Read More

Minnesota's statute that automatically revokes an ex-spouse's revocable designation of the other ex-spouse as a death beneficiary of an insurance policy or pension plan does not violate the federal constitution's Contracts Clause since it implements the former spouse’s presumed intent, thus supporting rather than impairing the contract. Read More

City of San Diego’s ordinance setting a 30-day limitations period on challenges to tax assessments does not deny plaintiffs due process and is not subject to equitable tolling based on a prior suit by a different taxpayer. Read More