Our Faculty in the Media July-December 2010

December 30, 2010
Los Angeles Times
Retiring California Chief Justice Ronald George wanted uniform policies and practices from county to county, and he figured the judiciary would have more clout in Sacramento if it spoke with one voice. Legal analysts consider the consolidation of the courts a historic achievement. George has received national recognition and awards for his work. "It is a much more efficient system," said Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, an analyst of California courts. "I think he will rank up there ... as one of the most effective administrators the court has ever had."

December 19, 2010
New York Times
The Roberts (Supreme) court, which has completed five terms, ruled for business interests 61 percent of the time, compared with 46 percent in the last five years of the court led by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and 42 percent by all courts since 1953. The idea that the Supreme Court reflexively rules for business interests is too simplistic, many legal scholars and practitioners say. If the court favors business, they say, it is as part of a broader orientation toward free markets and a wariness of many kinds of lawsuits. "The Roberts court appears to be a mainstream, traditional, modern Republican, conservative court," said Brad Joondeph, a law professor at Santa Clara University and a former law clerk to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. "Part of its constellation of commitments is against the regulation of business and, in particular, the regulation of business through litigation."

December 10, 2010
New York Times
Senator Dianne Feinstein's daughter Katharine Feinstein is a top candidate for the next District Attorney in San Francisco, a vacancy created by the election of Kamala Harris to state Attorney General. Feinstein is a Superior Court judge in San Francisco. Despite the runaway chatter in legal circles, there remains a fuzzy constitutional question of whether Ms. Feinstein is eligible for a political appointment. "There is a constitutional problem with an elected judge accepting appointment to a political office during his or her term of office," said Prof. Gerald Uelmen of the Santa Clara University School of Law.

December 13, 2010
Wall Street Journal
A Virginia federal judge is expected to rule Monday on whether the Obama administration's health law violates the Constitution, opening a new stage in the administration's defense of its biggest legislative achievement. "This has a chance to be a fairly polarizing and corrosive event," said Brad Joondeph, professor of law at Santa Clara University in California.

November 27, 2010
Los Angeles Times
The George court (California State Supreme Court) has upheld 90% of the death cases it has reviewed, the highest rate of any state court, according to Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen. George attributes the rate to the relatively high quality of defense the state provides at trial. But criminal defense lawyers maintain that many capital defendants receive inadequate counsel at trial. They note that federal courts overturn more than half the California death penalty cases they review.

November 23, 2010
San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times
A federal jury Tuesday ordered German software maker SAP to pay a stunning $1.3 billion to archrival Oracle, a record amount of damages for copyright violations in a case that stemmed from an SAP subsidiary's scheme to pirate Oracle's software. "Oracle plays to win, and this is an example of why they are so successful," said Eric Goldman, a Santa Clara University law professor who follows the tech industry. Oracle could have accepted a smaller settlement from SAP without going to trial, Goldman said, but the Redwood City company clearly wanted to prove its case for a larger audience.

November 1, 2010
KGO-TV 7
The Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether California's law to protect children from violent video games is constitutional. "The court has to figure out, does it really want to be in some ways a nanny for things like video games or the newly emerging technologies and Internet sorts of expression?" says Deep Gulasekaram, a professor at Santa Clara University Law School who specializes in constitutional law. "And I think the court in prior cases has signaled that it really would not like to be in that position."

October 31, 2010
Los Angeles Times
Santa Clara Law School professor Gerald Uelmen, who served as executive director on the California commission that examined death penalty issues in the state, argues that the cash-strapped state government could reap a huge savings by doing away with the death penalty and reducing the sentences of everyone on death row to life without possibility of parole. Uelmen says the cost would be three times less than it is for holding and paying for the appeals of death row inmates. He says lifers' appeals are usually decided within a year or two, after which the vast number of them simply spend the rest of their lives in prison.

October 20, 2010
Contra Costa Times
Kyle R., the teenager who said he was abused and held captive in a Tracy home for more than a year may be called to testify against one of his alleged captors, Anthony Waiters, 31. Waiters is charged with torture, kidnapping, false imprisonment and assault. Potential witnesses include the two young daughters of Michael Schumacher, 36, and Kelly Lau, 32, who have already pleaded guilty in this case in a deal with the District Attorney's Office. Like Schumacher and Lau, Caren Ramirez, Kyle's caretaker, also accepted a plea deal that took the most serious charge, of torture, off the table, thus avoiding a life sentence. The three are each scheduled to be sentenced to 30 years or more in prison on Dec. 6. Waiters is the only one of the four going forward with a trial. Edward Steinman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, said it is not unusual for co-defendants to take a plea deal and then testify against the person on trial. It is unusual, he said, that neither Lau, Schumacher nor Ramirez are on the potential witness list.

October 15, 2010
Sacramento Bee
NoteUtopia, a startup company for college students, has been ordered to "cease and desist" by the CSU chancellor's office, which said the company is violating state education codes that prohibit students from selling their class notes. The 10-year-old law that prompted the ban is so obscure that it caught NoteUtopia's founder, campus officials and Internet law experts by surprise. Eric Goldman, director of the High-Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University Law School and a professor of Internet law, said "many people had no idea it's on the books." Whether NoteUtopia can survive without the ability of California students to buy or sell class notes is unclear. "You could take one piece away from one state (California) and the business could still flourish," said Goldman. But if NoteUtopia intends to challenge California's statute, the legal battle could be so costly it would "dwarf the business," said Goldman. "The real tragedy for small businesses is that it's very expensive to be an entrepreneur in our society today. If (Note-Utopia) can't afford to wade into these cloudy legal areas," it may not survive.

October 8, 2010
KGO-TV 7
A South Bay college student Yasir Afifi says the FBI spied on him and he found the GPS tracker to prove it. Recently, a federal court of appeals re-affirmed the government's ability to use GPS devices on cars. Still, Afifi's attorney claims his civil rights were violated and he was intimidated and harassed. "They can try, but I'd also add that federal officers are protected by some robust immunities in this context," said Assistant Professor Kyle Graham from Santa Clara University School of Law.

October 8, 2010
Fresno Bee
Passage of California's Proposition 19, the initiative to legalize pot for recreational use may open up a legal war between California and the federal government. Legal observers, such as Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, say Proposition 19 could upset the accord that federal agents and California established with medical use. "I think it will open up a new order of conflict between the state and the feds," Uelmen said. "The feds resisted (Proposition 215) from the get-go. But I think we finally wore them down. "Now, if we open the door to lawful cultivation and distribution for recreational use, I think there will be a very strong reaction." In California's medical marijuana market, dispensaries account for more than $100 million in sales taxes, according to state estimates. But Uelmen said the mere act of paying taxes on recreational marijuana sales could constitute acknowledgment of a federal crime. "To pay the taxes will require us to admit that, in effect, we're violating federal law," he said.

October 7, 2010
San Jose Mercury News and Contra Costa Times
Meg Whitman has made it clear that she would take a very different approach to appointing judges than Schwarzenegger, who has been more willing than any governor in history to cross party lines in appointing judges; nearly half his selections have been Democrats. Gerald Uelmen, a Santa Clara University law professor, expressed disappointment in Whitman's model if it means moving away from Schwarzenegger's approach. "It would really be kind of a step backward," Uelmen said. If Brown is elected, Uelmen and other experts predict he would be cautious in picking judges, noting that he has placed more attention on criminal justice issues as Oakland's mayor and attorney general.

October 7, 2010
San Jose Mercury News
In a shocking courtroom conflict Thursday in the Los Gatos murder-for-hire trial, defense lawyer Harry Robertson asked for a mistrial, accusing a fellow defense lawyer of acting as a "second prosecutor" by undermining his case with spiteful comments, loud sighs, "fluffing" of his arms and objections that should be left to the prosecution. Judge David Cena denied the mistrial motion. Law professor Edward Steinman from Santa Clara University said the judge was clearly implying that Robertson will just have to "deal with it," especially since the judge "has not objected to Gillan's behavior and the judge has not tried to rein him in and sees his behavior as not harmful."

October 2, 2010
Miami Herald
Eric Goldman, director of the Santa Clara University School of Law's High Tech Institute, said buyers should be wary of buying smaller items such as phones and electronics from Craigslist. "Buying and selling on Craigslist has inherent risks, as opposed to an online retailer or eBay, where sellers have well-developed reputations," Goldman said. But he noted that most Craigslist users are honest, and customers should simply use common sense. "Craigslist is not an ideal place for criminals because buyers and sellers exchange a lot of information about each other," he said, adding: "It doesn't sound like we have the most savvy criminals."

October 1, 2010
Associated Press Financial Wire
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s board baffled Wall Street with its selection of HP's new leader Leo Apotheker, who lost his job running German business software maker SAP earlier this year after he didn't live up to expectations. The decision to give Apotheker another shot at being a CEO may renew questions about the competency of HP's board, predicted Stephen Diamond, a Santa Clara University associate professor of law specializing in corporate gov-ernance. Besides its decision to jettison Hurd, HP's board had previously come under fire for spying on the phone re-cords of journalists and other directors. "It looks like the board almost punted this decision," Diamond said. "This doesn't look like a very stable, long-term solution for the company."

September 25, 2010
Los Angeles Times
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel on Friday cleared the way for the first execution in California in nearly five years when he refused to halt murderer-rapist Albert Greenwood Brown's death by lethal injection. Santa Clara University law professor Ellen Kreitzberg, an expert on the death penalty, said Friday's ruling surprised her. Five years ago, she said, Fogel spent a lot of time meticulously examining the setting, training and testing that lay behind California's lethal injection process before finding flaws in it. But the judge's ruling in Brown's case came without his having examined the new execution chamber that has been built in the meantime and without his examining the training for those who administer the drugs. "There are so many unanswered questions and so many uncertainties that to allow the execution to go forward with those is really troubling," said Kreitzberg, who opposes the death penalty. "It's surprising after five years that everyone is rushing to have these executions move forward so quickly."

September 25, 2010
San Francisco Chronicle
More than a half dozen other condemned prisoners have run out of appeals and face execution if California's new injection procedures pass legal muster. Ellen Kreitzberg, a Santa Clara University law professor who has worked with defense attorneys in capital cases, predicted other inmates would face imminent execution dates if Albert Brown is put to death. It's "very surprising," she said, that on Friday cleared the way for the first execution in California in nearly five years when he refused to halt murderer-rapist Albert Greenwood Brown's death by lethal injection, scheduled for Wednesday. "acknowledges how many uncertainties there are but is willing to go through with the execution anyway."

September 21, 2010
Los Angeles Times
George A. Souliotes, a prisoner serving a life sentence for setting an arson fire that killed three people received a chance to prove his innocence Monday after an appeals court considered new scientific evidence in the case. Linda Starr, legal director of Santa Clara University's Northern California Innocence Project, said she was gratified that the appeals court resuscitated her client's case but would appeal the portion of the ruling that limited Souliotes' claims. "It is an uphill battle showing actual innocence, not because he isn't actually innocent, but because the standard is impossibly high," Starr said.

September 8, 2010
The Washington Post
One day after former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd agreed to become president of rival software firm Oracle, HP filed suit to block the move. HP claimed the executive would violate a confidentiality agreement by working for Oracle. "Any time the big Silicon Valley elephants go tusk to tusk, it's always exciting," said Eric Goldman, a technology law professor at Santa Clara University. "But it also points to the competition for talent."

September 7, 2010
San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times
Hewlett-Packard has escalated its war with Mark Hurd, filing a lawsuit that accuses the former CEO of violating confidentiality agreements by going to work for tech rival Oracle. California law does not allow so-called "non-compete" conditions in employment contracts, which companies in other states have used to restrict workers from joining rival firms. As an alternative, some companies have tried to assert that a key employee who joins a competitor will inevitably take actions or make decisions based on confidential information acquired from the old job. Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman agreed. "This comes up, but courts are very skeptical because it affects people's livelihoods."

September 5, 2010
New York Times
Yelp, the review site for local businesses, has been repeatedly sued by small businesses for what its users write. The suits have been dismissed by courts citing the Communications Decency Act or withdrawn by defendants once they learned about Web sites’ immunity, said Vince Sollitto, a Yelp spokesman. Some Internet law experts say the issue strikes at the heart of free speech. “For the government to intervene in Internet communication, it has to do that very carefully,” said Margaret Russell, a law professor at Santa Clara University in California. “The ultimate goal, public safety, is really important, but these are venues of free speech communication. They’re not conspirators in crimes.”

August 30, 2010
Recorder
Facebook Inc.'s trademark infringement suit against Teachbook. com over the use of the word "book" may be routine, but the social networking site isn't taking any chances. The social media company's decision to sue isn't surprising, said Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and director of the High Tech Law Institute. "It's just one data point in a broad trademark enforcement strategy by Facebook," Goldman said. "All trademark owners become more aggressive over time. I've seen that process repeated over and over again."

August 27, 2010
New York Times
The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that a California marketing company had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write and post positive reviews of clients' games in the Apple iTunes Store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so. Eric Goldman, former general counsel of Epinions.com, which reviews consumer products, said fake reviews were "a pervasive problem on the Internet. 'It is a problem that every review site has to grapple with," said Mr. Goldman, now a law professor at Santa Clara University and director its High Tech Law Center. "Many sites don't have rigorous policing mechanisms, so it is very hard to verify the trustworthiness of reviews."

August 26, 2010
Chicago Tribune
Teachbook.com, which provides tools for teachers to manage their classrooms and share lesson plans and other resources, has been thrust into the spotlight by social networking giant Facebook, which sued the local firm for using "book" in its name. "As companies mature, it becomes common that they start bringing trademark-enforcement actions against people with names that bug them," said Eric Goldman, associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and director of the school's High Tech Law Institute.

August 21, 2010
San Francisco Chronicle
The three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco wasn't required to state its reasons for issuing a stay that put same-sex marriages on hold until the court decides whether Prop. 8 violated the constitutional right to marry one's chosen partner. "This one is frustrating," said Pratheepan Gulasekaram, a constitutional law professor at Santa Clara University. "They did not directly respond to any of the points made by Judge Walker in his order lifting the stay." The panel, he said, probably concluded that the public interest was best served by maintaining marriage restrictions that have been in place for decades and were reaffirmed by the voters in 2008. "For gay persons in general, and more specifically, gay persons wanting to be married, this is not a satisfactory outcome," Gulasekaram said. Any explanation the court offered, he said, probably wouldn't "ease the burden of being told that another half-year of waiting won't be a big deal."

August 21, 2010
Fresno Bee
Richard A. Ciummo & Associates has thrived by offering governments cut-rate contracts to provide public defender services in Fresno, Madera and five other California counties. The firm has drawn criticism from law professors and legal-aid groups who fear the firm's flat-rate contracts cheat indigent defendants of adequate representation. A state commission formed by the California Senate singled out Ciummo's firm in a report that called for an end to flat-fee contracts for public defender service. "They should be illegal," said Gerald Uelmen, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law who was the commission's executive director. "They create a conflict of interest between the attorney and the client – the less work you do, the more money you make." When county supervisors try to ratchet down public defender costs through low-bid contracts, they further tilt the scales of justice in favor of the prosecution, said Uelmen. The commission's report on public defenders singled out Ciummo & Associates because no other firm seemed to have so many public defender contracts, he said.

August 13, 2010
San Jose Mercury News
Allen Hammond, a Santa Clara University law professor who heads the Broadband Institute of California, said the strong reaction to the Google-Verizon proposal to prevent high-speed Internet access providers from prioritizing different kinds of traffic is because broadband networks are now the nation's "nervous system." "Google was really doing the public's work to a certain extent by challenging the big Internet service providers and saying net neutrality was important," Hammond said. "I think some people may believe that Google has gone over to the other side when they try to argue this distinction between the wire-line and wireless Internet, which is ridiculous."

August 12, 2010
New York Times
Opponents of the proposal by Google and Verizon to allow carriers to charge websites more for better service say that the Internet, suddenly, would not be so open anymore. “All of our life goes through this network, increasingly, and if you can’t reach your boss or get to your remotely stored work, or it’s so slow that you can’t get it done before you give up and you go to bed, that’s a problem,” said Allen S. Hammond, IV, director of the Broadband Institute of California at Santa Clara University School of Law. “People need to understand that’s what we’re debating here.”

August 8, 2010
Contra Costa Times, San Jose Mercury News (Associated Press Financial Wire)
Former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Mark Hurd ouster is the third in five years at HP's top echelon. First was Carly Fiorina's in 2005, then former Chairwoman Patricia Dunn was ousted in 2006 amid a boardroom spying scandal that involved spying on reporters' and directors' phone records to suss out the source of leaks to the media. "It says they're off track in some fundamental way," said Stephen Diamond, associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and an expert on business law. "The first thing is, they have to find the right kind of CEO," he added. "And I think what that CEO needs to do is come in and say, 'How many board members were here during the last two scandals? If you were, please resign now."

August 7, 2010
Contra Costa Times
An expert on corporate governance said Saturday that CEO Mark Hurd's resignation may not end the scandal for HP. If the CEO was reimbursed for false expense claims, that could amount to receiving corporate money for personal use, said Santa Clara University law professor Stephen Diamond, who added that the case could trigger a shareholder lawsuit or a review by securities regulators. Regulators may also want to know why HP's board did not have better procedures in place to prevent such incidents, added Diamond.

August 6, 2010
New York Times
A temporary stay prevents same-sex couples from marrying while the case of Prop. 8 is being appealed, but legal analysts said it was unlikely that Judge Walker—who ruled that Proposition 8 violated the constitutional rights of gay men and lesbians—would extend it much beyond Friday, the deadline he set for both sides to file briefs on whether he should continue the ban. Margaret Russell, a law professor at Santa Clara University, said it was not a close call. ''If you balance administrative burden versus the violation of constitutional rights,'' Professor Russell said, ''the balance of harms is clearly in favor of not having a stay.''

August 5, 2010
San Francisco Chronicle
Opponents of gay marriage plan to seek a reversal of U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's toppling of Proposition 8 at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the meantime, the ruling may provide a valuable template for proponents of same-sex marriage, said Margalynne Armstrong, a law professor at Santa Clara University. "The decision puts forth an analysis that is so complete that it provides arguments for other people who are advocating for this in other states, and for other judges writing these decisions—even if this gets slapped down," Armstrong said.

August 5, 2010
San Francisco Chronicle
Margaret Russell, a Santa Clara University law professor, said Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's decision that Proposition 8's gay marriage ban is unconstitutional was reminiscent of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's 1996 ruling in a Colorado case. Kennedy said a state law that barred local gay-rights ordinances was unconstitutionally based on disapproval of the people those ordinances protected. Russell said the Supreme Court isn't likely to endorse Walker's conclusion that Prop. 8 violated a fundamental right to marry because the court hasn't previously recognized such rights for gay and lesbian couples. The justices could agree with Walker that the measure is unconstitutionally discriminatory, she said, but they might also draw different legal conclusions from the evidence he cited.

August 4, 2010
Thomson Financial News (Reuters)
Speaking about the U.S. District Court ruling that Proposition 8 California's same sex marriage ban is unconstitional, Santa Clara University School of Law professor Margaret Russell said Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's opinion, if sustained, would have broad consequences beyond California. "Any marriage ban based on moral disapproval of gays would fall under that reasoning," she said.

July 21, 2010
San Francisco Chronicle
Tani Cantil-Sakauye, an appellate justice with a reputation as a moderate Republican, was nominated Wednesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to become California's chief justice, the second woman and first nonwhite ever named to that position. "I think they've lit on someone who will not generate any controversy and will, I think, be well-equipped to manage the judicial branch because of her background and experience at every level of the judiciary," said Gerald F. Uelmen, a Santa Clara University law professor and longtime observer of the court. As the head of the state court system, he said, she should benefit from her past work with the Legislature on Deukmejian's staff and her administrative experience as a member of the state Judicial Council, to which George appointed her in 2008.

July 21, 2010
Los Angeles Times
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated 3rd District Court of Appeal Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye as the next chief justice Wednesday morning, which would make her the first Asian American to lead the state's judiciary and give the California Supreme Court a female majority for the first time in its history. Santa Clara University Law Professor Gerald F. Uelmen, who examined her appellate rulings, said there was "nothing of consequence that would tell us much about her orientation." He said she probably was chosen for her administrative and lobbying skills, not her judicial writings. "I really see Ron George's hand in this," Uelmen said. "I don't think it's her reputation as a legal scholar that got her the appointment, but rather her experience in dealing with court administration issues on the Judicial Council and her experience in dealing with the legislature and the governor."

July 20, 2010
Los Angeles Times
Net neutrality rules expected to be issued by the Federal Communications Commission are seen as a boon to Google by limiting the ability of high-speed Internet service providers, such as phone and cable companies, to steer users to their own content. Broadband service providers' complaints could just be "sour grapes" because Google has become more influential in Washington, said Allen Hammond, director of the Broadband Institute of California and a professor at Santa Clara University Law School. He noted that "all the companies are jockeying for their position" on net neutrality. "They are influencing policy as much as they legally can," Hammond said.

July 15, 2010
Los Angeles Times
The transfer of courts from counties to the state has "just been a remarkable transformation, and it has gone remarkably smoothly because of California chief justice Ronald George's leadership," said Santa Clara University law professor Gerald F. Uelmen, a longtime observer of the state high court. He said George also improved relations between the Legislature and the judiciary and made the courts more accessible to the public and the news media. But George fared less well in reforming capital punishment. Although George called the state's system "dysfunctional," he "has been powerless to do anything about it," Uelmen said. There remain large numbers of inmates without lawyers, and the appeals process continues to be sluggish. Like most others, Uelmen was surprised by George's decision, but "looking ahead could not be a pretty picture," the professor said. "He is not at a point of looking forward to being able to coast a little and enjoy the fruits of his labor. The job just gets harder every year. When you have to manage a system by cutting budgets, it gets old really fast."

July 15, 2010
San Francisco Chronicle
Ronald George, California's chief justice since 1996 and author of the ruling that briefly legalized same-sex marriage in the state, said he will retire in January - a surprise announcement that allows Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to choose his successor. "I'd look carefully at Justice Carol Corrigan" as a candidate, said Gerald F. Uelmen, a Santa Clara University law professor and an expert on the court's history. "She has moved to the top rank of productiveness." As a justice, George he has been conservative in criminal cases, particularly capital cases, moderate to liberal on civil rights and other social issues, and typically at the ideological center of his court. "He led from the center," said Santa Clara's Uelmen. "I think he'll be seen as a moderate who brought a lot of moderation to the court."

July 13, 2010
Newstex Web Blogs
A year ago, a jury found Joel Tenenbaum, a college student, liable for willful copyright infringement for sharing 30 songs and later set a damages award of $675,000. U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner dramatically reduced the award to $67,500. Gertner wrote in her decision that the original amount was too high and "unconstitutional." With regard to statutory damages in a copyright case, her decision is believed by some legal experts to be unprecedented. Not only are copyright owners attacking Gertner's reasoning, but so are some well-known lawyers from the pro-technology side. Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University who is often critical of entertainment companies in copyright litigation, predicted much of Gertner's ruling is vulnerable to appeal, which the RIAA will likely do, a high placed music-industry source told CNET on Tuesday. "This ruling is critically important," Goldman wrote on his blog on Monday. "It has the potential to [affect statutory damages for every copyright case that involves them]." Goldman said that despite feeling sympathy with the judge's aversion to the size of the award, brought on by what he called a "bad brew of an aggressive copyright lobby and pliable politicians," her arguments "did not completely convince me."

July 11, 2010
San Francisco Chronicle
The question in the case of Johannes Mehserle, which will probably determine the length of his sentence, is whether he is subject to a longer term for using a gun in the shooting death of Oscar Grant. Ordinarily, state law says anyone found to have used a gun during a felony must serve extra time in prison. If Judge Robert Perry decides that the law applies to Mehserle, the ex-police officer could get as much as 14 years and would have to serve at least 85 percent of his term.  If Perry finds that the mandatory extra time does not apply in this case, the maximum sentence would be four years, and Mehserle could go free halfway through his term. "You have to intend to use a gun" to receive a longer term for firearms use, said Edward Steinman, a Santa Clara University law professor. "The whole idea of the law was to penalize people who commit crimes using guns." Steinman predicted that Perry, having submitted the question of Mehserle's gun use to the jury, would follow the jurors' findings by imposing an increased term and leave the legal issue to the appellate courts.

July 9, 2010
Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune
In finding former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter, the jury also concluded that the 28-year-old is guilty of a gun enhancement, immediately raising questions among legal scholars about whether that enhancement contradicted the jury's primary verdict. How Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry chooses to answer those questions when he sentences Mehserle later this summer will determine if Mehserle receives a lenient punishment of felony probation, a serious sentence of 14 years in state prison or something in between. "Some people, including myself, believe (the judge) can do felony probation," said Edward Steinman, a criminal law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law. "I do not think the gun enhancement applies."

July 9, 2010
KGO-TV (Bay Area News)
Facebook and other social networking sites based in the United States are being accused by a Chinese-funded academic group of allowing users to stir up unrest in China. "They're concerned about anything that triggers or gives a tool to organizers of dissent in China in order to create genuine democracy there," Stephen Diamond said. Diamond, a law professor at Santa Clara University and a political scientist, follows international human rights issues. He said that Facebook is in a difficult situation if it is true that U.S. intelligence agencies use social networks to stir things up in other countries at the same time that high-ranking officials, such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, call for a free and open Internet. Diamond said that Facebook should debate the issue internally and engage its users to determine what it should or should not do. Watch the news clip here.

July 8, 2010
CBS-5 (Bay Area News)
Ed Steinman discussed the involuntary manslaughter verdict in the Johannes Mehserle trial. Watch the clip here.