L.A. Police Protective League v. City of L.A.

INTRODUCTION

California requires law enforcement agencies to investigate complaints against peace officers. (See Pen. Code, § 832.5, subd. (a)(1).)1 Section 148.6, subdivision (a)(1), makes it a crime to file a knowingly false allegation of misconduct against a peace officer. And section 148.6, subdivision (a)(2), requires law enforcement agencies, before accepting a complaint alleging misconduct by a peace officer, to require the complainant to sign an advisory informing the complainant that filing a knowingly false complaint may result in criminal prosecution. In 2002 the California Supreme Court upheld section 148.6 against a challenge the statute was an impermissible content- based speech restriction under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. (People v. Stanistreet (2002) 29 Cal.4th 497, cert. den. 538 U.S. 120 [123 S.Ct. 1944, 155 L.Ed.2d 861] (Stanistreet)). Three years later, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reached a different conclusion. The Ninth Circuit ruled section 148.6 was an impermissible viewpoint-based speech restriction under the First Amendment because the statute criminalized false statements that accused a…