Attorney Gregory Scott Walston's Legal Cases

Civil rights

Giraldo v. Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, 168 Cal. App. 4th 231

Nov 14, 2008

OUTCOME: The Court held, as a matter of first impression, the prisons have a duty to protect inmates in their custody under state law.

This case presented a question never before decided in California: whether prisons had a duty to protect inmates in their custody under state law. Plaintiff was an inmate in the California prison syst ... em. Plaintiff was a transgender inmate who had the appearance of a woman, but was placed in the male inmate population where she was repeatedly raped and beaten. Plaintiff filed an action challenging prison policies that placed her in the male inmate population, without any meaningful precaution to the obvious risk of sexual assault. The complaint made the specific claim that defendants failed to take action on plaintiff's repeated complaints that she was being beaten and raped by her cellmate at Folsom State Prison. Before reaching a hung jury on plaintiff's intentional tort claims, the court dismissed plaintiff's negligence claims on grounds that no authority recognized a duty by prisons to protect inmates in their custody under negligence principles. The Court of Appeal reversed that dismissal in this landmark decision, which found for the first time that prisons have a duty to protect inmates under state law.

Election campaigns and political law

Robinson v. McCain, et al.

Sep 29, 2008

OUTCOME: In a case of first impression, the US District Court for the Northern District of California held that there is no judicial review of US Presidential elections until after the electoral college casts its votes and decides the election.

Plaintiff was a third party designated electoral college voter, who sought injunctive orders from federal court intervening in the 2008 Presidential election on grounds that the Republican candidate, J ... ohn McCain, was born at a US Military Base in the Republic of Panama and therefore ineligible for the Presidency under the US Constitution's Natural Born Citizen Clause.

Employment and labor

Jones v. Deja Vu, 419 F. Supp.2d 1146 (N.D. Cal. 2005)

Jun 30, 2005

OUTCOME: The Court granted the injunction protecting plaintiff's identities. The Court also upheld plaintiff's unfair competition claims and bifurcated the remaining claims, which were sent to arbitration. The remaining portions of the case were settled.

This case was filed as a class action by employees of the Deja Vu chain of entertainment clubs in San Francisco, on grounds that the clubs failed to follow any applicable codes of the California Employ ... ment Code and engaged in unfair competition. The Clubs moved to dismiss the case, or alternatively to send plaintiffs' claims to arbitration. The plaintiffs' countered by moving the court for a preliminary injunction that, among other things, comprehensively protected plaintiffs' from retaliation by the clubs, even preventing the Clubs from knowing their identity.

Civil rights

Gerber v. Hickman, 291 F. 3d 617 (9th Cir. 2002) (en banc)

May 23, 2002

OUTCOME: In a special en banc hearing before an 11 Judge Panel, the Ninth Circuit found that the Constitutional Familial Right to Privacy and Procreation Does Not Survive Incarceration.

This case found, for the first time, that the Constitutional Right to Familial Privacy and Procreation does not survive incarceration. Plaintiff, a forty-one year old man, was an inmate at Mule Creek ... State Prison serving a sentence of 100 years to life plus eleven years. Plaintiff's wife was forty-four years old. Plaintiff and his wife wanted to have a baby. The California Department of Corrections prohibited family visits for life inmates. Accordingly, plaintiff wished to artificially inseminate his wife. The prison refused to accommodate plaintiff's request. The plaintiff sued under 42 USC 1983 in Federal District Court, and the District Judge dismissed the case under Rule 12(b)(6). Plaintiff appealed. After a three-judge panel reversed in a split decision, the Ninth Circuit reheard the case en banc, and affirmed the district court's dismissal.

Gregory Scott Walston's Legal Cases (4)

Giraldo v. Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, 168 Cal. App. 4th 231

Robinson v. McCain, et al.

Jones v. Deja Vu, 419 F. Supp.2d 1146 (N.D. Cal. 2005)

Gerber v. Hickman, 291 F. 3d 617 (9th Cir. 2002) (en banc)