Stephen Gerald Breyer is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1994 until his retirement in 2022. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton,and replaced retiring justice Harry Blackmun. Breyer was generally associated with the liberal wing of the Court. He is now the Byrne Professor of Administrative Law and Process at Harvard Law School.
Edward "Ed" Rosenthal is an American horticulturist,author,publisher,and Cannabis grower known for his advocacy for the legalization of marijuana use. He served as a columnist for High Times Magazine during the 1980s and 1990s. He was arrested in 2002 for cultivation of cannabis by federal authorities,who do not recognize the authority of states to regulate the use of medical marijuana. He was convicted in federal court,but the conviction was overturned on appeal. Rosenthal was subsequently convicted again,but was not re-sentenced,since his original sentence had been completed.
Proposition 215,or the Compassionate Use Act of 1996,is a California law permitting the use of medical cannabis despite marijuana's lack of the normal Food and Drug Administration testing for safety and efficacy. It was enacted,on November 5,1996,by means of the initiative process,and passed with 5,382,915 (55.6%) votes in favor and 4,301,960 (44.4%) against.
Diane Alexis Whipple was an American lacrosse player and college coach. She was killed in a dog attack in San Francisco on January 26,2001. The dogs involved were two Presa Canarios. Paul Schneider,the dogs' owner,is a high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood and is serving three life sentences in state prison. The dogs were looked after by Schneider's attorneys,Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller,a husband and wife who lived in the same apartment building as Whipple. After the fatal attack,the state brought criminal charges against the attorneys. Noel,who was not present during the attack,was convicted of manslaughter. Knoller,who was present,was charged with implied-malice second-degree murder and convicted by the jury. Knoller's murder conviction,an unusual result for an unintended dog attack,was rejected by the trial judge but ultimately upheld. The case clarified the meaning of implied malice murder.
Eugene Volokh is an American legal scholar known for his scholarship in American constitutional law and libertarianism as well as his prominent legal blog,The Volokh Conspiracy. Volokh is regarded as an expert on the First Amendment,and the Second Amendment. He is the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at the University of California,Los Angeles,and is an affiliate at the law firm Schaerr Jaffe.
Martin Joseph Jenkins is an American attorney and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California. He was previously a justice of the California Court of Appeal for the First District,located in San Francisco,and a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Dennis Robert Peron was an American activist and businessman who became a leader in the movement for the legalization of cannabis throughout the 1990s. He influenced many in California and thus changed the political debate on marijuana in the United States.
Gregory Reyes is an American businessman who most recently served as the chief executive officer (CEO) for Brocade Communications. He is the first person to have been convicted for fraudulent backdating of corporate stock options.
Raymond Kwok-Cheung Chow,nicknamed "Shrimp Boy",is a Hong Kong-born felon with ties to a San Francisco Chinatown street gang and an organized crime syndicate,including the American branch of the Hong Kong-based triad Wo Hop To and the Hop Sing Boys.
Dennis Herrera is an American attorney,currently serving as Public Utilities Commission general manager for San Francisco. Herrera was previously City Attorney of San Francisco,known for his longtime legal advocacy for same-sex marriage in California,including the In re Marriage Cases,43 Cal.4th 757 (2008),and Hollingsworth v. Perry,570. U.S. (2013),as well as the legal fight against Proposition 8. He was first elected as City Attorney in 2001,and re-elected without opposition in 2005,2009,2013,2015 and 2019. He ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of San Francisco in the 2011 election,finishing third in the City's ranked-choice voting system. After his long-standing position as City Attorney,he was unanimously approved in 2021 to become the general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
Vaughn Richard Walker is an American lawyer who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California from 1989 to 2011. Walker presided over the original trial in Hollingsworth v. Perry,where he found California's Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional.
Jeremy Don Fogel is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Fogel was appointed by President Bill Clinton. He was a judge for the municipal court and superior court of Santa Clara County,California from 1981 to 1998. He served as Director of the Federal Judicial Center from 2011 to 2018.
Nordyke v. King was a case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in which a ban of firearms on all public property and whether the Second Amendment should be applied to the state and local governments is to be decided. After several hearings at different levels of the federal court system,Alameda County,California promised that gun shows could be held on county property,essentially repudiating its ordinance.
Hollingsworth v. Perry was a series of United States federal court cases that re-legalized same-sex marriage in the state of California. The case began in 2009 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California,which found that banning same-sex marriage violates equal protection under the law. This decision overturned California ballot initiative Proposition 8,which had banned same-sex marriage. After the State of California refused to defend Proposition 8,the official sponsors of Proposition 8 intervened and appealed to the Supreme Court. The case was litigated during the governorships of both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown,and was thus known as Perry v. Schwarzenegger and Perry v. Brown,respectively. As Hollingsworth v. Perry,it eventually reached the United States Supreme Court,which held that,in line with prior precedent,the official sponsors of a ballot initiative measure did not have Article III standing to appeal an adverse federal court ruling when the state refused to do so.
Edward Milton Chen is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and former United States magistrate judge of the same court.
Lucy Haeran Koh is an American lawyer serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Koh previously served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California from 2010 to 2021. She also served as a California state court judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court from 2008 to 2010. She is the first Korean American woman to serve on a federal appellate court in the United States.
Luke Dominic Brugnara is an American commercial real estate investor and developer. Brugnara became known for purchasing real estate in downtown San Francisco during the 1990s. In 2015,he was convicted of defrauding an art dealer and sentenced to seven years in prison.
William Horsley Orrick III is an American lawyer who serves as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. He had a long career as a lawyer in private practice in San Francisco,and served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice during the Obama administration.
Vince Girdhari Chhabria is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and formerly a deputy city attorney at the San Francisco City Attorney's Office.
Daniel Paul Collins is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
