BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2296
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 2296 (Mullin)
As Amended August 21, 2008
2/3 vote. Urgency
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|ASSEMBLY: | |(May 19, 2008) |SENATE: |29-0 |(August 22, |
| | | | | |2008) |
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(vote not relevant)
Original Committee Reference: JUD.
SUBJECT : Creates a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in
the county jail for any person who publishes information
describing, depicting, or location of an academic researcher or
his/her immediate family member, with the intent that another
person imminently use the information to commit a crime
involving violence or threat of violence against an academic
researcher or his/her immediate family member.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this bill,
and instead:
1)Name this section the "Researcher Protection Act of 2008."
2)Declare that while individuals are entitled to express their
views on animal use in research and to mount protests that are
protected under the First Amendment to the United States
(U.S.) Constitution, the use of physical threats, violence, or
destruction of property is unacceptable and should not be
tolerated. Unlawful acts that threaten and intimidate
researchers or their families at their personal residences are
not protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
and are a direct threat to the academic researcher's
constitutional rights to academic freedom.
3)Provide that any person who publishes information describing
or depicting an academic researcher or his/her immediate
family member, or the location or locations where an academic
researcher or an immediate family member of an academic
researcher may be found, with the intent that another person
imminently use the information to commit a crime involving
violence or a threat of violence against an academic
researcher or his/her immediate family member, and the
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information is likely to produce the imminent commission of
such a crime, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by
imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, a
fine of not more than $1,000, or by both a fine and
imprisonment.
4)Define "publishes" as making the information available to
another person through any medium, including, but not limited
to, the Internet, the World Wide Web, or e-mail.
5)Define "academic researcher" as any person lawfully engaged in
academic research who is a student, trainee, or employee of an
accredited California community college, a campus of the
California State University or the University of California,
or a Western Association of Schools and Colleges accredited,
degree granting, nonprofit institution. Academic research does
not include routine, nonlaboratory coursework or assignments.
6)Define "immediate family" as any spouse, whether by marriage
or not, domestic partner, parent, child, any person related by
consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any
other person who regularly resides in the household, or who,
within the prior six months, regularly resided in the
household.
7)Define "information" to include, but not be limited to, an
image film, filmstrip, photograph, negative, slide, photocopy,
videotape, video laser disc, or any other computer-generated
image.
8)Allow an academic researcher about whom information is
published to seek a preliminary injunction enjoining any
further publication of that information.
9)Exempt persons lawfully engaged in labor union activities that
are protected under state or federal law.
10)Provide that any person who enters the residential real
property of an academic researcher for the purpose of
chilling, preventing the exercise of, or interfering with the
researcher's academic freedom is guilty of trespass, a
misdemeanor.
EXISTING LAW :
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1)States no person, business, or association shall knowingly
publicly post or publicly display on the Internet the home
address, home telephone number, or image of any provider,
employee, volunteer, or patient of a reproductive health
services facility or other individuals residing at the same
home address with the intent to do either of the following:
a) Incite a third person to cause imminent great bodily
harm to the person identified in the posting or display, or
to a coresident of that person, where the third person is
likely to commit this harm; or,
b) Threaten the person identified in the posting or
display, or a coresident of that person, in a manner that
places the person identified or the coresident in
objectively reasonable fear for his/her personal safety.
2)Mandates that very person who, with intent to cause, attempts
to cause, or causes, any officer or employee of any public or
private educational institution or any public officer or
employee to do, or refrain from doing, any act in the
performance of his/her duties, by means of a threat, directly
communicated to such person, to inflict an unlawful injury
upon any person or property, and it reasonably appears to the
recipient of the threat that such threat could be carried out,
is guilty of a public offense punishable upon a first
conviction by a fine not exceeding $10,000, or by imprisonment
in the state prison, or in a county jail not exceeding one
year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
3)Punishes any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime
which will result in death or great bodily injury to another
person, with the specific intent that the statement, made
verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic
communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if
there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its
face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so
unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to
convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an
immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby
causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his
or her own safety or for his/her immediate family's safety,
shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to
exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.
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4)Allows for prosecution against those who refuse or fail to
leave land, real property, or structures belonging to or
lawfully occupied by another and not open to the general
public, upon being requested to leave by a peace officer at
the request of the owner, the owner's agent, or the person in
lawful possession, and upon being informed by the peace
officer that he/she is acting at the request of the owner, the
owner's agent, or the person in lawful possession or the
owner, the owner's agent, or the person in lawful possession.
5)States that every person other than a public officer or
employee acting within the course and scope of his/her
employment in performance of a duty imposed by law, who enters
or remains in any noncommercial dwelling house, apartment, or
other residential place without consent of the owner, his/her
agent, or the person in lawful possession thereof, is guilty
of a six month misdemeanor.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill created new civil remedies
for threats and other misconduct made against an "animal
enterprise" engaged in exercising its constitutional rights
pertaining to academic freedom in its use of animals for testing
and research.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "This bill seeks to deter
attacks against University of California (U.C.) animal research
employees and their families in their homes by animal rights
activists. This bill was prompted by an attempted home invasion
that occurred in February 2008 upon a U.C. Santa Cruz faculty
member who had used mice for breast cancer research. The
Berkeley police department has also identified several animal
rights activists who committed acts of vandalism at the
residence of six U.C. Berkeley scientists. The names and
addresses of these scientists were reportedly posted on animal
activist Web sites, along with descriptions of their use of
animals in their research."
Analysis Prepared by : Nicole J. Hanson / PUB. S. / (916)
319-3744
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