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Press Release

September 27, 2021. New York, New York

Case: California Chamber of Commerce v. Rob Bonta, et al

 

Background

Poulsen Law P.C. represents an official ballot proponent of California Proposition 65 Penny Newman and The Chemical Toxin Working Group Inc. dba Healthy Living Foundation Inc. in Cal. Chamber of Commerce v. Bonta, E.D.Cal., No. 2:19-cv-02019-KJM-JDP.

The case was filed in October 2019. On September 24, 2021, Chief Judge of the District Court for the Eastern District of California Kimberly J. Mueller issued an order recusing herself from Cal. Chamber v. Bonta under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a); denying as moot the Motion to Disqualify her filed by Defendant-Intervenor Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT), Mot., ECF No. 152; Objs., ECF No. 154; 24 Objs., ECF No. 158; Reply, ECF No. 167; Suppl. Mem., ECF No. 171, and ordering to seal the Motion to Disqualify with all supporting documents, 16 documents in total.

 

Three documents in support of Motion to Disqualify, [171], [171-1] and [172], were sealed. However, 13 of 16 such documents were deleted from the docket: [152], [152-1],[152-2],  [155], [155-1], [155-2], [156] [157], [158], [167], [167-1], [167-2], [167-3]. 

Judge Mueller also directed CERT to resubmit the sealed documents, obscuring the addresses (which are public record). CERT expressed their intent to comply with the Order and submit such documents as directed, over its objection to redacting the publicly available information.

CERT also expressed their intent to move the court to (1) restore the deleted docket entries to the public docket so that the docket entries themselves are visible to the public even if the documents associated with them remain under seal; (2) restore sealed documents so that appellate courts and the trial court have access to unredacted documents. See Carijano v. Occidental Petroleum Corp., 2019 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 220774, at *25 (C.D.Cal. June 20, 2019, No. CV 07-5068 PSG (PJWx)) (granting motion to unseal and ordering the clerk to restore the deleted docket entries to the public docket so that the docket entries themselves are visible to the public even if the documents associated with them remain under seal).   

Healthy Living Foundation's statement

"This case involves protection of public health from Group 2A IARC carcinogen acrylamide present in many needlessly over-processed snack foods targeted at children, used for school lunches or sold in school vending machines. On March 29, 2021, Judge Mueller has issued a preliminary injunction that prohibited a requirement to warn consumers about presence of this dangerous carcinogen in their food, finding that it violates corporations’ rights against compelled commercial speech, and siding with the Plaintiff who represents the industrial lobby. The Ninth Circuit Court imposed an emergency stay of this injunction, as relates to private enforcement action.

Healthy Living Foundation, a non-profit focused on early life exposures to carcinogens, reproductive and developmental toxins, supports Judge Mueller’s decision to recuse herself in service of the integrity of the American legal system, and believes that the people have the right to know the factual grounds for this recusal brought in CERT's motion to disqualify. HLF trusts that the court will unseal the pleadings and supporting documents, which are largely based on information in free public access, sources like Yelp, California Secretary of State’s website, Judge Mueller’s own press appearances and disclosures, public records, corporate websites, and therefore by definition are devoid of invasion of privacy.

The case should be litigated in court and not in the press; to avoid any confused narration of any participants' actions in the case, and out of respect to the Court and to Chief Judge Mueller, it is important to provide the public with an access to court records in the case of such high public concern. This will allow the public to ascertain the propriety of conduct of all participants, including public health advocates and their respective counsel who donate their work and resources pro-bono to this important cause of public health.

Healthy Living Foundation remains committed to protection of pregnant women, children, and the unborn from dangerously high levels of carcinogens in their foods that are estimated to cause 60% of cancers in the US."

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