Five Acts to Follow: Legislation to Cut Rents and Other Bills You Should Know About

During difficult times such as now, it’s in your best interest to keep an eye on laws working their way through the California State Capitol and to know the legislators who are pushing them.

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.

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.