Eastern District of California Blog

67% Of California Voters Oppose Federal Medical Marijuana Crackdown

While Colorado and Washington await AG Holder's new policy statement on those states' legalization of marijuana, thehill.com, the Sacramento Bee reports today that 54% of registered California voters favor legalization of marijuana for personal use and 67% oppose the federal crackdown on medical marijuana:

Meanwhile, California voters across party lines seem to be taking issue with federal threats, raids and prosecutions involving medical marijuana businesses.

The state's four U.S. attorneys have brought criminal cases against some medical marijuana providers and growers and sent letters threatening seizures of properties of others.

While all marijuana use is illegal under federal law, U.S. prosecutors assert California's medicinal cannabis industries have been "hijacked by profiteers" violating both state and federal laws.

In the poll of registered voters in early February, 68 percent of Democrats, 55 percent of Republicans and 78 percent of independents said they oppose the federal crackdown.

"It's certainly not winning over the hearts and minds of Californians," state Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said of voters' reactions to federal enforcement efforts. "The getting tough policy by the feds is not impacting public opinion in a positive way."

Wow, I didn't think you could get Republicans, Democrats, and Independents to agree that the sky was blue.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/27/5220454/field-poll-california-voters-favor.html#storylink=cpy

Sequester Poses Dire Consequences for Bureau of Prisons

Is it just me or does anyone else find it odd that conservatives are leading the movement towards less use of incarceration in our criminal justice system?

Among the many articles on the effects of sequestration on the Bureau of Prisons, see "Justice Department Can Be Smarter About Sequester," 2/26/13, thehill blog; "Sequester Impact on Federal Prisons," 2/23/13, Forbes; "Sequester to Affect Prisons, National Guard," 2/27/13, NCNewsOnline, Prof. Berman's Sentencing Law & Policy Blog quotes a piece in yesterday's Business Insider about the dire consequences sequester will bring to the Bureau of Prisons:

Sequestration will hit each and every aspect of the U.S. government, but for the Bureau of Prisons, the impact could be horrifying. According to the Attorney General's office, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) will have to handle a rising number of inmates with a major budget reduction, a cut of $338 million.

And while other agencies can find ways to do more with less — for example, by reducing procurement, enacting hiring freezes or cutting services — BOP has to maintain constant security at federal prisons around the country with even less money. The solutions will not be pretty.

In an email to Business Insider, a spokesperson from the Department of Justice said that they are "acutely concerned about staff and inmate safety should sequestration occur." The Department indicated that it may at times maintain a minimum level of staff for security purposes, and that lock-downs may be required.

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Complicating all of this is the fact that the federal prison system is already severely overcapacity. According to the 2012 Justice Department annual report, the system is 38 percent overcapacity, a problem that the Department has identified as a major weakness. But efforts to find a solution will be thwarted by the sequester.

In 2013, the BOP was slated to activate 5 new prisons throughout the system, alleviating the crunch with 8,100 new beds. In addition to cuts in guards, those projects will have to be delayed, exacerbating the overcrowding problem further. On top of these issues, Holder reported that the BOP will be forced to curtail or cancel some of the crucial rehabilitation programs that bring long term savings to the criminal justice system....

Jesselyn McCurdy, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union who specializes in civil liberties in the criminal justice system, is very concerned about the impact that the cuts will have on inmates. “"Sequestration could result in disaster for people in federal prisons who already live in dangerously overcrowded conditions,”" McCurdy said.

City of Stockton Faces 4-Day EDCA Bankruptcy Trial

A judge overseeing Stockton's bankruptcy on Tuesday set a four-day trial one month from now to resolve a hard-fought battle over the city's eligibility to seek Chapter 9 protection.

Attorneys for the city in an hourlong hearing tried to convince U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein that the trial was unnecessary, adding costs and further delaying resolution of the bankruptcy.

Recordnet, 2/27/13

Bakersfield Marijuana Cases

The Bakersfield Californian reports on sentences imposed in two marijuana cultivation cases here (4 years) and here (37 months and 22 months).

Judge Allison Claire Sworn In At Investiture Ceremony

That's my iphone photo of U.S. Magistrate Judge Allison Claire being officially sworn in yesterday in the Sacramento federal court's ceremonial courtroom.  (I added another photo to my twitter feed @balazslaw.)  Here's an excerpt from today's Sacramento Bee:

No one until now has made the jump from the federal public defender's office to the federal bench in Sacramento.

Those who know and have worked with Allison Claire describe her as "super smart," a hard worker and compassionate, and they harbor no doubt it will be an effortless transition for her.

Claire was officially sworn in Friday as Sacramento's seventh U.S. magistrate judge at an installation in the federal courthouse's ceremonial courtroom.

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Claire, 52, is the first member of the federal judiciary in the nation, at any level, to be in a state-sanctioned same-sex marriage. She and her wife were married during the 4 1/2-month window – June 16 to Nov. 5, 2008 – between the California Supreme Court's validation of same-sex marriage and the passage of Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution outlawing it.

Sacramento Denied Federal Halfway House Again

The Sacramento County Planning Commission on Thursday rejected a controversial plan to place a halfway house for federal parolees in one of the region's most crime-plagued neighborhoods.

The panel voted 3-1 to deny a company a conditional use permit to place a "residential re-entry center" at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 43rd Avenue in the west Lemon Hill neighborhood of south Sacramento.

Sacramento Bee, 2/22/13

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/21/5208577/sacramento-county-planners-reject.html#storylink=cpy

Realignment Seminar--U.C. Davis Law School, March 16

You can register here for the State Bar Criminal Law's Section Realignment Seminar at the U.C. Davis School of Law on March 16, 2013, 9-11:30 a.m.  From the summary below, it looks worthwhile for all California defense attorneys:

Realignment, the New Prop 36 and other Criminal Law Sentencing Changes. California sentencing laws have changed dramatically since 2011 with the enactment of AB109 and passage of the New Prop 36 which affects Three Strike Cases.  Learn what the changes are and the different sentencing options, including the changes in custody credit and the split/two tiered sentence provisions.

Featured speaker is Judge (Ret) Richard Couzens who will discuss the application of these new sentencing provisions, as well as the court cases which have defined and interpreted the changes. Judge Couzens is responsible for training bench officers throughout the state on these topics and regularly presents to defense and prosecuting organizations.

Wiretaps and Minimization

Former EDCA Federal Defender Dan Broderick has a couple of useful articles on challenging the minimization requirement in wiretap orders at Carlton Gunn's blog:

Is the Government Actually Minimizing Calls?

How to Determine Whether to Challenge Minimization in a Wiretap Case?

 

Supreme Court Rejects Optical Companies Challenge to California Law

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected optical companies' challenge Tuesday to a California law, backed by optometrists, that prohibits eyeglass sellers from  using their offices to conduct eye exams.

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A federal judge in Sacramento struck down the law in 2006, saying it was a  protectionist measure designed to limit competition from out-of-state  optical chains.

But the Ninth U.S.  Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated the law in two rulings  in 2009 and 2012 and said it had the legitimate purpose of protecting  California's medically trained optometrists from takeovers by large businesses. 

SF Gate, 2/19/13; [added Sacramento Bee, 2/21/13].

Ninth Circuit Rules Wiccan Inmates Can Sue For Chaplain

Hartmann v. Cal. Dept. of Corrections, 11-16008 (2/19/13):

A state prison inmate and former inmate who practice the Wiccan religion can  proceed with a lawsuit accusing California of discriminating by refusing to hire a Wiccan chaplain while paying for chaplains from more mainstream faiths, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The women claim that Wicca, a goddess-worshiping form of witchcraft, has more  adherents in the state women's prison at Chowchilla (Madera County) than Islam or Judaism, two of the five religions that have state-paid chaplains. 

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U.S. District Judge Lawrence  O'Neill dismissed the suit in 2011, finding no violations of the inmates'  rights. The appeals court agreed with much of his reasoning Tuesday, saying the  prisons had not interfered with the women's right to practice their religion or  intentionally discriminated against them by providing only a  volunteer chaplain.

But the court said the women may be able to prove that the state Department  of Corrections and Rehabilitation is violating the constitutional ban on a  governmental "establishment of religion," which prohibits a state from endorsing  one faith over another.

SF Gate, 2/19/13