One of the controversial occurrences that occurs during the legislative sessions of the California Legislature are so-called gut and amend bills. According to the Legislative Counsel, these measures are defined as “when amendments to a bill remove the current contents in their entirety and replace them with different provisions.”
These types of amendments raise
AI overpowering and subsequently overtaking humankind has scared people for decades. Movies like I, Robot showcase the grim reality of an AI-dominated world where AI ignores the original confines humans assigned to them. Other movies—like The Terminator—toy with the idea that if AI becomes dominant, it will do anything to
Most capitol observers are only aware of the majority vote and the two thirds super majority vote requirements for California legislation. However, there are actually several other categories of vote requirements on bills that come before the Legislature. The other categories are the three fourths vote, the 70% vote, and the four fifths vote.
The California Legislature works on the basis of deadlines for moving measures including bills, resolutions and constitutional amendments through the legislative process. This is in stark contrast to the US Congress that does not have similar deadlines. The Assembly Chief Clerk and the Senate Secretary each maintain information related to these legislative deadlines.
Most
We’ve all seen the movie Concussion, and if you haven’t—you should. It tells the story of Dr. Bennet Omalu’s discovery of the degenerative brain disorder Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (“CTE”) in NFL players. With the success of the movie—coupled with countless stories of ex-NFL, high school, and youth football player’s suicides flooding
To those who are not operating in or around the California State Capitol, sponsored bills are relatively unknown. However the media often focus on sponsored bills in a critical manner making matters confusing. In Congress, the term sponsor means the legislator whose name is on the bill. However in the California Legislature, the legislator
A fundamental purpose of both the federal and California Administrative Procedure Acts is to allow public participation in the federal and state rulemaking processes.
Providing notice to the public of the proposed rulemaking as well as an opportunity to be heard during the rulemaking process is key to having meaningful public participation in the
By: Christy GrellasI am one of the many Americans who is staying up to date with the college admissions scandal. It combines celebrities, elite universities, and fraud into a perfect media storm. Throughout the scandal, many wealthy parents across the United States paid Rick Singer roughly $25 million, in total, to get their children
Article IV, Section 10(e) of the California Constitution explicitly gives the Governor of California a power that not even the President of the United States has, the line-item veto.
The exact language of Article IV, Section 10(e) reads, “The Governor may reduce or eliminate one or more items of appropriation while approving other portions
In the California Legislature, as with many other legislative bodies across the country, there’s often an initial question regarding whether amendments to an existing bill are germane to the subject matter of the existing bill.
In California, the office of the Legislative Counsel, who serve as the lawyers for the Legislature, may opine on