Asked & Answered

Q: The City Council recently placed a rent control measure on the November ballot, and one of the Councilmembers who suggested a change to it before it was voted on, told an online newspaper: “[The Councilmember] said deals had been made to line up enough votes for that 15-year timeline, but “I saw an opportunity to jump in” and call a vote on extending it.” This sounds to me like a possible case of the

Q: The entire re-casting of the agreement between the City and the County was initiated with a letter from a lawyer who wrote the City Attorney a letter. He attached a draft civil complaint of what they might file, a central set of arguments the consideration of which must have led to further discussions, and the nature of which the public has a compelling public interest to consider. The lawyer appears to have marked the letter

Q: I submitted a Public Records request to my Unified School District and paid the copy fee, but when I picked up the packet it did not contain any of the items that listed. Instead it was a copy of my Personnel file, which I am already entitled to obtain even without the request? Can you help me obtain the items I requested and since they did not comply? A: If the District is claiming that the

Q: Cal Fire claims to have released all documents related to a request with the exception of “documents that are protected by attorney-client privilege.” Is there a way to find out what was redacted/withheld? A:  It appears that Cal Fire invoked the attorney-client privilege exemption in order to withhold the documents. In general, California law provides that confidential communications between a lawyer and his or her client are privileged and do not have to be

Q: I draw, from my imagination, pornographic scenes that I sometimes distribute to consenting adults. I have been convicted for possessing pornography for having these drawings. Is my conviction legal? A: Visual arts and entertainment constitute protected forms of expression under the First Amendment. See White v. City of Sparks, 500 F.3d 953 (9th Cir. 2007); Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781,790 (1989).  However, there are limits to the First Amendment, and distributing obscene material does not