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JOINT LEGISLATIVE VICTORY NEWSFLASH – November 3, 2014
From: Roy Hanson — Family Protection Ministries and Mike Smith — HSLDA
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Bill: AB 1256 – Blocking Entry and Exit from facilities (including private schools and homes)
Author: Assembly Member Richard Bloom
Position: Strongly Opposed Unless Amended
Status: Positively amended before being signed into law.
A Great Victory for all Parents and Children!!
The author accepted all of the amendments presented to him by FPM. These amendments were researched and written in close teamwork with HSLDA.
Summary:
AB 1256 perfectly illustrates how a poorly written law can have detrimental unintended consequences. AB 1256 was written to protect the children of celebrities in situations where paparazzi blocked children from reaching their parents while being picked up from school.
However, AB 1256 would have, among other things, made it unlawful for any person to interfere with any person attempting to enter or exit their private home, private school, church, and other facilities.
While the reprehensible behavior of paparazzi needed to be addressed, the overbroad language would have failed to distinguish: (1) between “the bad guys”and “the good guys” and (2) between interference that is bad and interference that is good and necessary!
This overbroad language, which included definitions of “blocking”, “interfering”, and “facility” – would have effectively made it illegal for you to block someone you thought was a threat from entering your home or other facility without your permission, including any school, church, or other facility (for which you had responsibilities to help protect its occupants) and would have made you subject to civil lawsuits and civil penalties.
For example, if the victim of a home invasion blocks his doorway to prevent an uninvited intruder from getting into his home, then AB 1256 (before our amendments were accepted) would have allowed that home intruder to sue the resident for getting in the way. The resident would have been subject to a civil lawsuit and a civil penalty, with fines up to $15,000. Such a situation seems outrageously ridiculous, but such was the case with the broad definitions and language used in early versions of AB 1256.
These problems with the bill were fixed with our following two amendments:
(1) Our first amendment removed “private residence” from the definition of a facility.
(2) Our second amendment stated that the new law “shall not be construed to restrict, inhibit, prevent, or bring a chilling effect upon any actions by a person that are reasonable under the circumstances to protect, secure, provide safety to, or prevent illness in any child or adult in a facility.”
Your support of FPM through donations and HSLDA through memberships makes these kinds of victories possible.
No further action is needed on this bill.
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This Victory Newsflash was sent out by
Roy Hanson and Nathan Pierce
Family Protection Ministries
PO Box 730
Lincoln, CA 95648
We attempt to evaluate all legislation from a Biblical/Christian World View.
Permission is given to forward this Victory Newsflash unaltered to your friends, church, school, and group.