From legislation to cut rents and mortgages across California to your right to order invisible braces for your teeth online, here are five pieces of legislation that could impact the African American community across California, and meet the legislators who authored and introduced those bills.
Assembly Bill 3070 – Pulling Racism Out of the Jury Selection Process
Assemblymember Dr. Weber’s (D-San Diego) AB 3070 bill would prohibit a party from using a peremptory challenge to remove a prospective juror on the basis of the prospective juror’s race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, or religious affiliation.
Introduced on Feb. 21 of this year, Dr. Weber’s bill addresses how the jury-selection process referred to in courtrooms as Voir Dire — and conducted by trial judges, prosecutors or defense attorneys — exclusively uses peremptory strikes to remove African Americans or people of color from a court case.
In a letter addressed to Cal Matters published on March 27, the California State NAACP President Alice Huffman asked the legislature to reject any bill that would create a barrier to affordable dental care.
Bates says she introduced SB 867 and SB 868 to help newspapers and freelance journalists continue to operate in California by exempting them from the state’s new anti-independent contracting law, AB 5.
