San Jose Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

The Secure Communities Program, operated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has been under fire recently. The program requires that local county jails provide all booking fingerprints of new arrestees to the Federal Government. The stated goal of the program is to "improve[] public safety every day by transforming the way criminal aliens are identified and removed from the United States." (see www.ice.gov). The fingerprints are checked against FBI criminal history records and records from the Department of Homeland Security.

Santa Clara and San Francisco counties have attempted to prevent booking fingerprints from being immediately sent to ICE, although this may be in violation of the US Constitution's Supremacy Clause. These counties allege that the Federal Government is deporting undocumented workers for misdemeanors and other minor offenses, which is having a grave impact on families.

The Los Angeles Times reports that State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has introduced a bill that would modify California's obligations under the Secure Communities Program. The bill would call for automatic disclosure of fingerprints of convicted felons only. Thus fingerprints taken when a person is arrested would remain with the local authorities and only released if such person is convicted. Under these provisions only people who have been convicted of serious and violent crimes would have their fingerprints routed to the Federal Government for the purposes of deporting illegal immigrants.

The legality of the program is itself under review, with accusations of its unconstitutionality or at the very least having exceeded its original authority.

Continue reading "California Seeks to Alter Mandatory Release of Fingerprints" »

Proposition 215, passed by the voters of California in 1996, allows for the prescribed use of medicinal marijuana to treat specified (and in some cases unspecified) illnesses where other forms of treatment provide little assistance to the patient. However, the law provides no protection to employees from being fired for using cannabis, even when the employee has a valid prescription.

State Senator Mark Leno, San Francisco, introduced Senate Bill 129,passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Brown, which prohibits employers from firing any employee who tests positive for cannabis and has a valid marijuana prescription. The new law does not allow for the use or the possession of marijuana in the workplace; rather it protects qualified patients from employment termination or discrimination for testing positive.

Specifically, the law makes it unlawful for an employer to terminate an employee for 1) being qualified as a medicinal marijuana patient or 2) testing positive for marijuana use, if that person is a qualified patient. The law also provides for damages and injunctive relief for the employee wrongfully terminated under the law. Further the law would not apply to "safety sensitive" positions where a person being treated with medical cannabis might "endanger the health and safety of others." The law goes on to define what a safety sensitive position is.

Last year the People of California refused to pass an initiative that would have made the possession and use of cannabis legal. Federal law still prohibits the use and possession of marijuana under any circumstances and defines it as a dangerous drug. However, despite some Federal raids of cannabis dispensaries in California, it is unlikely that the Feds will crackdown on the personal use of marijuana.

Source: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/

Continue reading "New Legislation Will Protect San Jose Workers" »