Many California property owners think of constitutional rights in broad terms. These protections can involve property rights, due process, and limits on government power. However, two constitutional frameworks may apply to these issues: the United States Constitution and the California Constitution. In many situations, the California Constitution provides broader protections. That distinction is not merely… Read more »
Government authority in the United States is not unlimited. The federal government operates within the powers the Constitution grants to it. State governments exercise broad authority, but they operate within both the federal Constitution and their own state constitutions. Local governments in California exercise only the authority state law grants to them. That structure of… Read more »
When a government official violates your constitutional rights, the harm is not necessarily addressed through the criminal system. Federal civil rights law provides a separate mechanism: a civil lawsuit filed directly against the government actor responsible. That mechanism is codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Section 1983 is not a law that creates constitutional rights…. Read more »
Government agencies don’t always wait for condemnation proceedings before entering private land. Sometimes, they need access before they decide whether to take the property at all. This process is called precondemnation entry, and it raises serious constitutional questions for California property owners. Property owners have specific rights during this process that deserve close attention. The… Read more »
Two weeks ago several US congressmen put forward a bill to implement a modified version of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act. The bill is an explicit response to last year’s supreme court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder striking down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act as unconstitutional. Given the controversy and… Read more »
This term the US Supreme Court will have the opportunity to decide whether the state can force private home assistants to join a public employee union. Recently, the Court agreed to hear arguments from appeal lawyers in Harris v Quinn. That case challenges the constitutionality of an Illinois executive order that declared personal home assistants (i.e…. Read more »
