BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2263|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2263
Author: Baker (R), et al.
Amended: 5/23/16 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 5-1, 6/28/16
AYES: Jackson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning, Wieckowski
NOES: Anderson
NO VOTE RECORDED: Moorlach
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 70-0, 5/27/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Protection of victims of domestic violence, sexual
assault, or stalking, and reproductive health care
service providers: address confidentiality
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill standardizes the confidentiality protections
for Safe at Home (SAH) program participants, regardless of
whether their participation is based on their status as victims
of domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault, or on their
status as a patient, employee, or volunteer at a reproductive
health care clinic; and requires the Secretary of State (SOS) to
provide SAH enrollees with information about how to protect
their privacy on real property records.
ANALYSIS:
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Page 2
Existing law:
1)Establishes an address confidentiality, or Safe at Home (SAH),
program within the Office of the SOS in order to enable state
and local agencies to both accept and respond to requests for
public records without disclosing the changed name or address
of a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
Permits any such adult victim, or parent or guardian acting
on behalf of a minor or incapacitated person, to apply through
a community-based victims' assistance program to have an
address designated by the SOS as his or her substitute mailing
address. (Gov. Code Sec. 6205 et seq.) Similarly, existing
law allows reproductive health care providers, employees,
volunteers, and patients to participate in the SAH address
confidentiality program, as specified. (Gov. Code Sec. 6215
et seq.)
2)Provides that no person, business, or association shall
knowingly and intentionally publicly post or publicly display
on the Internet the home address, home telephone number, or
image of a program participant or other individuals residing
at the same home address with the intent to threaten the
participant or cause the participant, or co-resident, harm, as
specified. (Gov. Code Sec. 6208.1.)
3)Prohibits the SOS from disclosing a program participant's name
change or address, other than the designated address, unless
it is requested by, and disclosed to, law enforcement, or
directed by a court, or if the participant's certification has
been canceled. (Gov. Code Secs. 6206, 6206.4 and 6208)
4)Prohibits a person, business, or association from knowingly
posting or displaying on the Internet the home address, home
telephone number, or image of any provider, employee,
volunteer, or patient of a reproductive health service
facility, with the intent to incite a third person to cause
imminent bodily harm to a person protected by this provision.
Permits a person whose personal information is posted to bring
an action for injunctive relief of damages, as specified.
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Provides that no person shall post or display on the Internet
any personal information about a person protected by this
provision if the person has requested that the information be
removed, as specified. (Gov. Code Sec. 6218.)
This bill:
1)Specifies that no person, business, or association shall
publicly post or display on the Internet the address of an SAH
program participant, as specified, who has made a written
demand of that person, business, or association to not
disclose the home address of the program participant.
2)Specifies that no person, business, or association shall
knowingly post the home address of an SAH program participant,
as specified, or of the program participant's residing spouse
or child, on the Internet, knowing that person is a program
participant and intending to cause imminent great bodily harm
or threatening to cause imminent great bodily harm to the
program participant or his or her residing spouse or child.
However, this provision does not apply to an interactive
computer service or access software provider, as defined,
unless the service or provider intends to abet or cause
imminent great bodily harm that is likely to occur or
threatens to cause imminent great bodily harm to a program
participant.
3)Requires the SOS to post on its Internet Web site and provide
new SAH enrollees information about how to protect personal
privacy on real property records as follows:
A notice that the participant may request to use his or
her SOS SAH address on real property deeds, change of
ownership forms, and deeds of trust when purchasing or
selling a home;
A notice that the participant may wish to protect his or
her home address from disclosure in real property
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transactions by creating a trust and placing his or her
real property into the trust;
A notice that the participant may wish to legally change
his or her name in order to protect his or her anonymity;
and
A list of contacts for entities, such as county bar
associations, legal aid societies, domestic violence
prevention organizations, or other state or local
nonprofits who can provide more information and legal
services to create a trust or accomplish a name change.
Background
With the passage of SB 489 (Alpert, Chapter 1005, Statutes of
1998), the Legislature established the SAH within the Office of
the SOS to allow victims of domestic violence to apply for a
substitute address to be used in public records in order to
prevent their assailants, or potential assailants, from finding
their work or home address. Through subsequent legislation, the
program has been expanded to include victims of sexual assault,
stalking, elder abuse, and reproductive health care service
providers, employees, volunteers, and patients. (See SB 1318
(Alpert, Chapter 562, Statutes of 2000), AB 205 (Leach, Chapter
33, Statutes of 2000), AB 797 (Shelley, Chapter 380, Statutes of
2002), and AB 849 (Garcia, Chapter 676, Statutes of 2013).)
This bill standardizes the protections available to program
participants and seeks to enhance participants' ability to
maintain anonymity on real property records by requiring the SOS
to provide participants with specified information.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
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SUPPORT: (Verified8/1/16)
California Partnership to End Domestic Violence
California State Sheriffs' Association
Community Action Fund of Planned Parenthood of Orange and San
Bernardino Counties
Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office
Crime Victims United of California
Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Santa Barbara, Ventura, & San
Luis Obispo Counties
Planned Parenthood Action Fund of the Pacific Southwest
Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project Los Angeles County
Planned Parenthood Advocates Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte
Planned Parenthood Northern California Action Fund
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/1/16)
California Right to Life Committee
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: In support, the California State
Sherriff's Association writes: Current law provides that state
and local agencies may use a Secretary of State designated
address when creating public records for victims of domestic
violence, sexual assault, and stalking as well as reproductive
health care service providers. Unfortunately, this protection
does not prevent a county assessor's office from publishing
certain records, which creates a loophole in maintaining the
victim's confidentiality. Consequently, potential predators are
able to access a victim's private home address by using the
county assessor records.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: In opposition, the California Right
to Life Committee writes, "this bill may be protecting domestic
violence victims and others with an alternate and approved
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address, but it appears to single out family planning personnel
who, basically, are abortion providers and would provide them
with an additional cloak of privacy. Other healthcare providers
who are not providing abortion and abortion related services are
not included in this proposed protection of personal
information. Agencies that provide services and are considered
anti-abortion should merit equal protection and confidentiality
of their personal information."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 70-0, 5/27/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Burke, Calderon, Campos,
Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chu, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Eggman,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo
Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Harper,
Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim,
Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, Olsen,
Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Brough, Brown, Chiu, Cooper, Dahle, Dodd,
Grove, Hadley, Melendez, O'Donnell
Prepared by:Nichole Rapier / JUD. / (916) 651-4113
8/4/16 14:29:40
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