A legal fight over private prisons + More 2020 California court battles + The Capitol Bureau’s best

Happy New Year! It’s the start of a fresh year, decade and, pretty soon, the 2020 legislative session.

‘IT CANNOT STAND’

California will have its fair share of legal battles to wage in 2020.

A private prison company filed suit on Monday to block Assembly Bill 32, which prohibits California from contracting with for-profit, private prisons.

The GEO Group owns and operates private federal detention facilities and filed its complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. The lawsuit alleges that AB 32’s intent is to “undermine and eliminate the congressionally funded and approved enforcement of federal criminal and immigration law” by government agencies.

“This transparent attempt by the state to shut down the federal government’s detention efforts within California’s borders is a direct assault on the supremacy of federal law, and it cannot stand,” the filing includes.

The lawsuit reflects California’s immigrant-friendly status as a sanctuary state and its effort to undermine federal enforcement agencies tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump’s harsher immigration policies.

Advocates against for-profit detention centers denounced the filing as a way to ensure tax dollars go toward prison companies rather than community needs.

The Dignity not Detention Coalition released a statement calling the lawsuit a “shameless attempt” by GEO to “protect its ill-gotten profits, safeguard illicit contracts which violates state and federal law and undercut the will of the people.”

“There is growing consensus that detention, like all mass incarceration, is inhumane and unnecessary — community-based case management is a powerful and effective alternative,” the coalition stated. “From every corner of California and from coast to coast, we will continue to raise our voices for justice.”

IN OTHER LEGAL NEWS...

First...

A law to ban mandatory arbitration that was scheduled to go into effect today won’t kick off with the new year after all since U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller ruled on Monday to temporarily block Assembly Bill 51.

The California Chamber of Commerce urged Mueller’s court to halt the law, arguing that “businesses routinely enter into arbitration agreements with workers, either as a condition of employment or on an opt-out basis, so that both parties can make use of alternative dispute resolution procedures.”

“In addition to being protected under federal law,” the chamber continued in a statement, “arbitration is effective and has been repeatedly shown to be fair to both sides and preferable to court proceedings.”

The law was seen by its supporters as a way to ensure employees have “access to justice” and to protect workers, mainly women who experience sexual harassment, from “forced arbitration.”

The California Labor Federation issued a statement claiming it was “extremely disappointed” with the ruling, Bloomberg reported. Spokesman Steve Smith said the decision was “just the first step in the process and we’ll continue to work with the California attorney general to vigorously defend our law.”

Then...

Uber and Postmates sued California on Monday to protect themselves against Assembly Bill 5, the state’s landmark labor law that will require businesses to treat independent contractors as employees. Uber is also preparing an expensive ballot initiative to battle the legislation, and the trucking industry is also legally challenging the law.

The companies allege the new law will “stifle workers and companies in the on-demand economy.” They also discredited the legislation due to a “laundry list of exemptions” for certain industries over others.

The bill’s author, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, promised on Twitter to continue her battle against the tech industry’s employment practices.

“Come and get me tech bros,” she said. “I’m here every single day to take on the plight of workers against big tech. I’m so tired of billionaires using technology as an excuse to deprive workers of a livable wage.”

She was backed by unions and lawmakers who supported the bill during the 2019 session.

“This baseless lawsuit is another desperate attempt by Uber and Postmates to preserve a business model built on exploitation. In their vision, every worker gives up their right to the protection of our labor laws if their corporate employer wishes to define them outside the law,” said Bob Schoonover, president of SEIU California. “Just ask today’s drivers - who are living in cars and eating from food banks - how this plays out.”

BEST OF 2019

We’ve had a crew of newcomers to the bureau, including yours truly, who tackled their first session working for The Bee with great enthusiasm. Here’s a list of some of our reporting highlights. And if you’ve enjoyed our work, please consider a digital subscription to the paper.

• The Sacramento Bee revealed that after he broke a campaign pledge by accepting industry campaign donations, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara had also partied with an insurance lobbyist last year after his victory. We also found Lara’s fundraiser, Dan Weitzman, scheduled meetings with insurance executives, with one “to benefit” his reelection campaign in 2022. Weitzman isn’t working for the commissioner anymore. “I wish I had paid more attention,” Weitzman told me earlier this year in an interview detailing his fundraising missteps. “I wish it hadn’t have happened.”

• We also reported that Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis had solicited donations from unions and her family’s business to fill out her lean office budget and cover the costs of her inauguration.

• And after reviewing property records, The Bee discovered Gov. Gavin Newsom wasn’t going to move in to the Midtown governor’s mansion. Instead, his family moved to a $3.7 million, six-bedroom house in Fair Oaks.

• The Bee rolled out in April the first major installment of its investigation into California jails, finding throughout the series that the state failed to enforce its own rules of its so-called “realignment” effort to divert inmates from prisons into jails.

• The Bee discovered Caltrans was paying former director Laurie Berman to commute to Sacramento from her home in San Diego each week, and even paying for Berman to keep an apartment in Sacramento. The department was paying for the director’s commute under a special agreement with former Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration, even as it punished a lower-level manager for charging the state for the same commute.

• We also reported that the California Prison Industry Authority spent $12,000 on a retirement party for a manager — complete with $5,000 worth of bathroom stalls outfitted with rugs, flowers, artwork and mints. The reporting spurred an investigation.

• The team also followed up on reports by University of California employees who had missed paychecks or received reduced direct deposits, which they attributed to the university system’s troubled payroll system, UCPath. The system then had to pay out $162,000 in “make whole” payments to the student workers who were affected.

• As California prepared to launch its new Motor Voter program last year, top elections officials said they asked Secretary of State Alex Padilla to hold off on the roll-out. California went ahead anyway, and we documented the repercussions.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“In a battle between tech bros and @LorenaSGonzalez I am on her side every damn time.”

- Robert Cruickshank, campaign director at Demand Progress

This story was originally published January 1, 2020 at 2:55 AM.