Starbucks Corp. v. Superior Court

Opinion

IKOLA, J.

Can a purported remedy cause the very disease it is supposed to prevent? In this so-called “headless” class action, the answer regrettably is yes.

During the first administration of Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., in the mid-1970’s, the California Legislature reformed the state’s marijuana laws to require the “destruction” by “permanent obliteration” of all records of minor marijuana convictions that were more than two years old. Employers were prohibited from even asking about such convictions on their job applications, with statutory penalties of the greater of actual damages,…