BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1256 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 1256 (Bloom) As Amended August 22, 2014 Majority vote ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |53-19|(January 29, |SENATE: |24-11|(August 27, | | | |2014) | | |2014) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: JUD. SUMMARY : Makes it unlawful for a person to physically obstruct, intimidate, or otherwise interfere with any person who is attempting to enter or exit a "facility," as defined, and revises existing law provisions relating to the constructive invasion of privacy. Specifically, this bill : 1)Makes it unlawful for any person, except a parent or guardian acting toward his or her minor child, to commit any of the following acts: a) By force, threat of force, or physical obstruction that is a crime of violence, to intentionally injure, intimidate, or interfere with, or attempt to injure, intimidate, or interfere with, any person attempting to enter or exit a facility. b) By nonviolent physical obstruction, to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with, or attempt to injure, intimidate, or interfere with, any person attempting to enter or exit a facility. 2)Permits any person aggrieved by a violation of the above to bring a civil action for compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive relief, and attorney's fees and costs. Permits plaintiff to elect specified statutory damages. Permits the state Attorney General, a district attorney, or a city attorney to bring an action to enjoin a violation, for compensatory damages on behalf of an aggrieved person, or for the imposition of specified civil penalties. 3)Defines "facility" to mean any public or private school grounds, as described, and any health facility, as described. AB 1256 Page 2 4)Specifies that nothing in the provisions above shall be construed to impair any constitutionally protected activity, including, but not limited to, speech, protest, or assembly. 5)Revises and recasts an existing statute so as to clarify that a person is liable for constructive invasion of privacy for attempting to capture, in a manner that is offensive to a reasonable person, any type of visual image, sounding recording, or other physical impression of another person engaging in a private, personal, and familial activity, as specified. Defines "private, personal, and familial activity" for these purposes to include the following: a) Intimate details of the plaintiff's personal life under circumstances in which the plaintiff has a reasonable expectation of privacy. b) Interaction with the plaintiff's family or significant others under circumstances in which the plaintiff has a reasonable expectation of privacy. c) Where minors are present at a private or public school and the defendant has been convicted of disrupting school activities, as specified. d) Any activity that occurs on a residential property under circumstances in which the plaintiff has a reasonable expectation of privacy. e) Other aspects of the plaintiff's private affairs or concerns under circumstances in which the plaintiff has a reasonable expectation of privacy. 6)Specifies that nothing in this bill shall be construed to restrict, inhibit, prevent, or bring a chilling effect upon any actions by a person that are reasonable under the circumstances to protect, secure, provide safety to, or prevent illness in any child or adult in a facility. The Senate amendments : 1)Specify that nothing in this bill shall be construed to restrict, inhibit, prevent, or bring a chilling effect upon any actions by a person that are reasonable under the circumstances to protect, secure, provide safety to, or AB 1256 Page 3 prevent illness in any child or adult in a facility. 2)Amends the definition of "facility" so as not to expressly include any lodging, including a private residence, hotel, temporary lodging facility, inn, motel, bed and breakfast, or any other location that provides permanent or temporary lodging to persons. 3)Incorporate additional changes to Civil Code Section 1708.8 proposed by AB 2306 (Chau) of the current legislative session, that would become operative if this bill and AB 2306 are both enacted and this bill is enacted last. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: 1)Potential minor state trial court costs to the extent this bill results in additional civil proceedings. 2)Non-reimbursable local costs for prosecution by district or city attorneys, offset to a degree by penalty revenues. 3)Potential future cost pressure in excess of $150,000 (General Fund) to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to evaluate complaints, investigate allegations, and pursue new causes of action, offset to a degree by penalty revenues. COMMENTS : This bill, sponsored by the Paparazzi Reform Initiative, seeks to curtail the sometimes aggressive conduct of the paparazzi. Several similar bills have come before the Assembly Judiciary Committee in recent years. These bills usually pit the privacy rights of celebrities against the interests of news organizations in reporting upon, and the public's interest in reading about, the goings-on of the rich, the famous, the infamous, and others who are simply more interesting than the rest of us. Recent legislation on this issue has typically attempted to shoehorn the conduct of the paparazzi - attempting to capture a person's image without that person's consent and in a highly aggressive manner - into existing laws that prohibit harassment, stalking, or physical and constructive invasions of privacy. This bill would make two changes to existing law. First, existing law makes a person who attempts capture a visual image or sound recording of another person with the use of an enhanced AB 1256 Page 4 visual or audio device liable for "constructive" invasion of privacy, so long as the person did so in a manner that was offensive to a reasonable person, the image or recording could not have obtained without a trespass in the absence of the enhanced device, and the plaintiff was engaged in a "personal and familial activity," as defined. This bill would amend this statute by changing "personal and familial activity" to "private, personal and familial activity," and then providing examples of what constitutes private, personal, and familial activity. Second, and more substantively, this bill would prohibit, and subject to civil liability, attempts to obstruct, intimidate, or otherwise interfere with another person who is attempting to enter or exit a school or medical facility, as defined. This latter provision in the bill draws almost from an existing statute that makes it unlawful for a person to obstruct, intimidate, or otherwise interfere with a person attempting to exit or enter a reproductive health facility. The author and sponsor contend that this bill is needed to protect not only celebrities, but members of the public more generally, when paparazzi block access points to vital facilities. Analysis Prepared by : Thomas Clark / JUD. / (916) 319-2334 FN: 0005413