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Legislative Intent Service, Inc. News & Notes

Some bill research does not include the Governor's file because at the time we researched the bill, the sitting Governor had not released his chaptered bill file. If the Governor's file is not included with this particular research, please contact our office (1-530-666-1917 or quote@legintent.com) and we will be happy to provide this file at no charge if it is available. Please Note: Governor files did not exist prior to 1943.

LEGISLATIVE INTENT SERVICE, INC.

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LIS NEWS AND NOTES

Timeless Legislative History and Wisdom:  As we go about the business of researching legislation, we sometimes find nuggets of insight old documents that shed light on our political nature.  On December 10, 1949, California State Senator Herbert C. Jones gave an address before the California Historical Society in San Jose.  The foreward to this address indicated that he was so well liked that when he ran for the Senate representing the people of Santa Clara in 1914, he won as the candidate for all five parties:  Republican, Democratic, Prohibition, Progressive and Socialist!

At this address in 1949, Senator Jones described California’s First Legislative Session in 1849, which convened almost one year prior to California being granted statehood.  He noted that at this specific time:

. . . [T]here was no established or recognized universal law for California.  In some sections the Pike County Code of Missouri was followed; in other sections the New York Code.  In the southern part of the State the old Mexican law was observed, and in the northern part the English common law was used, with the exception of the vicinity of Monterey.  In some parts of the State the miner’s code prevailed as the law; and in the cattle country the law of the plains government.  [California] was part military government, part civil government, and part no government at all.  Some of the courts were Mexican, others were military seeking to enforce civil law.  In some communities the alcalde assume wide authority, and in other sections squatter sovereignty or vigilante law prevailed.

            Amidst such confusion, the business man had no assurance.  The banker and the merchant knew not when debts would outlaw or what was the law of commercial paper.  There was no standard by which to determine the requirements for deeds and land titles.  There was no competent court to enforce the law or preserve the peace. . . .   

Eventually, Senator Jones observed, the First Legislature adopted as the basic law of the State the common law of England.  Our own experience here at LIS is that other states’ laws eventually influenced California laws over the years as well as the Napoleonic Code with regards to certain Civil Code provisions.  During this first legislative session, in a matter of days, the First Legislature set up an entirely new state government, and a system of courts, enacted codes and statutes, found ways to defend the State’s borders, and addressed conflicts between mining interests and agricultural and commercial interests. 

In his concluding remarks in which he discussed the “price of good government,” Senator Jones expressed in 1949 certain concerns that will sound familiar to the rest of us in modern America in 2014:

            There is a great deal of talk today about lobbyists and pressure groups.  There is talk about danger to our country from dictators abroad.  It is true that pressure groups are potent in gaining their ends.  It is true that pressure groups are potent in gaining their ends.  It is true that lobbyists gain special privileges for their clients.  It is true that authoritarianism in government prevails in large areas of the world.

            These, however, are not the real threat to our State.  The real danger lies in the failure of otherwise good citizens to appreciate what they enjoy under representative government.  The real danger is not ideologies or attack from without—it is the surrender of our institutions by the indifference and inaction of Americans themselves.

            There is no royal road to good government.  There is no panacea that will of itself cure the ills of democracy.  Almost any form of government will work well if there is a high degree of alertness o the part of the citizen, and no form will work if the citizen is apathetic.  Two things are necessary on the part of the voter, if the representative government is to function—an educated intelligence and an unceasing interest.  We have to look to our schools to provide the first.  We can only look to the individual himself to provide the second.

            The price of good government, like the price of liberty, is eternal vigilance.

(Address by Sen. Herbert C. Jones, Dec. 10, 1949)

By the Way, What Was “Mining Law” Back Then?  With California’s gold rush in the 1849-1850’s era thriving in the new Pacific frontier, the mining camps established bodies of rules and would set up tribunals in specific camps when needed for enforcing these rules.  According to Gregory Yale in his 1867 book, Legal Title to Mining Claims and Water Rights in California, the rules were modeled after similar rules from other mining regions in the world:

. . . They reflect the matured wisdom of the practical miner of past ages, and have their foundation . . . in certain natural laws, easily applied to different situations, and were propagated in the California mines by those who had a practical and traditional knowledge of them in their varied form, in the countries of their origin, and were adopted, and no doubt gradually improved and judiciously modified, by the Americans.

(pp. 59)

California’s Civil Practice Act of 1851, enacted one year after the state was admitted into the Union, the law of miners and mining camps was set forth in uncodified § 621 as follows:

   § 621.  In actions respecting “Mining Claims,” proof shall be admitted of the customs, usages, or regulations established and in force at the bar, or diggings, embracing such claim; and such customs, usages, or regulations, when not in conflict with the Constitution and Laws of this State, shall govern the decision of the action.

In their book, The Development of Law in California, Wm. Palmer and Paul Selvin described the law in early California as a “crazy-quilt pattern,” with attorneys and judges bringing their own versions of the law from varied and different sources and philosophies. (pp. 5)  In addition to “mining law,” they indicated there was also the “law of the vigilantes,” the “law of the jungle,” and “lynch courts.”  (Id.)

Book Recommendation:   What does this statute mean?  This is a question we are asked a lot when talking with clients and as we are well aware, here at LIS, that in the face of ambiguous language, sometimes this simple question has no easy answers.  We have canons of statutory interpretation but what happens when we need more?  In his new book, Judging Statutes, Hon. Robert Katzmann, Chief Judge of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals , talks about why it is appropriate consider legislative intent when interpreting ambiguous statutes, and why he rejects a textualist interpretation of statutes.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has just inked a review of Judge Katzmann’s book for The New York Review of Books in which he stated: 

In the introduction to his book Katzmann notes ‘the simple reality’ that an enormous increase in the number of new statutes has led to a corresponding increase in the number of judicial decisions in which federal courts are called upon to interpret them as they apply in one situation or another. Now a substantial majority of the Supreme Court’s caseload involves statutory construction. And of course the work of lower federal court judges, administrative agencies, and practicing lawyers increasingly involves the interpretation of federal statutes. His topic is unquestionably important, and he has shed new light on the ongoing debate between ‘purposivists’ and ‘textualists.’

Three Free Self-Study MCLEs:  LIS now offers THREE California State Bar approved self-study exams on the separate subjects of legislative process (1 hr.), the California Public Records Act of 1968 (1 hr.) and legal ethics (1 hr. ethics!).  These free exams are easily available 24/7 at our website for your convenience and will help you meet your State Bar MCLE compliance.  In a timely manner, we will correct the exams and provide you with your State Bar approved certificates electronically.  

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LIS 40th Anniversary:  With 2014 marking Legislative Intent Service, Inc .’s 40th year in business, LIS has been in the business of researching legislative history and intent longer than any other private research law firm in California. Many of our long-term clients can look back to our earlier days because they still have our research binders available to their attorneys on their office and library shelves. Now, with pdf delivery of documents, our clients have their legislative history research needs met quickly and completely without copying or scanning charges!

LIS provides excellence in research built upon these four decades of experience, leading to an unparalleled expertise in legislative intent, history and research by our staff attorneys and researchers.  Our firm researches all 50 states’ and federal bills. We also research state and federal regulations and California’s Industrial Welfare Commission. Visit our website to learn more about how our legislative research, whether custom or online store , can help you win your case!

 

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