Author: Morgan Mitruka

Overview Courts sometimes signal to the legislature that it should resolve an ambiguity by amending the law. But the legislature does not always respond. Faced with legislative inaction, what should the judiciary do? This question arose in two recent cases, People v. Burgos and People v. Aguirre, which expose a deeper divide on the California Supreme Court over how to treat legislative silence when interpreting statutes. In Burgos and Aguirre the court resorts to a rigid, formalist framework, with two dissenting justices championing a functional inquiry. Yet under either approach lower courts would have a difficult time applying Estrada, reflecting...

Overview Facial recognition technology and AI-driven surveillance raise urgent and pressing questions about privacy. One company in particular, Clearview AI, has created controversy over its surveillance technology. The company has been banned in Canada, sanctioned across Europe, and faced lawsuits challenging its practices in the United States. One such lawsuit, Renderos v. Clearview AI, is currently making its way through California courts. The case represents one of the first tests for courts to determine how modern AI surveillance interacts with California’s once-strong privacy protections. As a matter of both law and public policy, the courts should take the opportunity to...