The Court is holding no conferences on December 29, 2010 and January 5, 2011.  As a result, the Court will take no action on any pending petitions for review, publication requests or depublication requests.  The Court’s next conference is scheduled for January 12, 2011.

In today’s Los Angeles Times, Maura Dolan has an excellent, extensive retrospective of Ronald George’s tenure as California’s Chief Justice.  It starts with an interesting insider’s tidbit that I don’t remember hearing before — in what will likely be his most-remembered decision, In re Marriage Cases (2008) 43 Cal.4th 757, George “drafted an opinion . [...]

Yesterday’s Daily Journal [subscription required] had an interesting article by Laura Ernde about the fact that, when Tani Cantil-Sakauye assumes her duties as Chief Justice in January, the California Supreme Court will have a permanent four-member female majority for the first time in its history.  Ernde’s article rightly points out that the most remarkable aspect [...]

We noted yesterday that the only apparent remaining hope for completing this year the sale to private investors of numerous state buildings rested with seven temporary justices of the California Supreme Court who were appointed to decide Governor Schwarzenegger’s writ petition seeking to compel the Sixth District Court of Appeal to lift its stay of the sale. This afternoon, the [...]

Appellate lawyer Kirk Jenkins of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold LLP today posted on one of his firm’s blogs — The Appellate Stategist – the second of a four-part profile of retiring Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George.  Yesterday’s post discussed George’s life prior to taking the bench; today’s post covers the early part of his judicial career.

We were wondering whether it would be the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court that made the next move in the litigation seeking to block the sale to private investors of numerous state buildings, including buildings that house the Supreme Court and two Courts of Appeal.  Now we know it’s the Court of Appeal. This afternoon, [...]

As the clock ticks towards the end of Governor Schwarzenegger’s term — and thus, possibly, the end of the time to complete the sale to private investors of certain state buildings, including the Supreme Court’s (and First and Second District Courts of Appeal’s) homes in San Francisco and Los Angeles — legal proceedings regarding the sale are [...]

The following is our summary of the Supreme Court’s actions on petitions for review in civil cases from the Court’s conference on Tuesday, December 21, 2010. The summary includes those civil cases in which (1) review has been granted (not including grant-and-transfers), (2) review has been denied but one or more justices has voted for [...]

Following the recusal of the entire Supreme Court from the state-buildings-sale case, which we reported yesterday, the acting Chief Justice this morning assigned seven Court of Appeal justices as pro tem Supreme Court justices to handle the writ petition:  Justices Richard Aronson, William Bedsworth, and Richard Fybel from the Fourth District, Division Three in Santa Ana; Justice [...]

The lawsuit to block the sale to private investors of a number of state buildings, including the Supreme Court’s San Francisco and Los Angeles homes, is back in the Supreme Court, but, in an extremely rare occurrence, none of the current Supreme Court justices will decide the matter.  As we noted, after the Superior Court denied an injunction [...]

In its conference on Wednesday, December 15, 2010, the Court granted no petitions for review in civil cases, no petitions were denied with dissenting justices, and no opinions were ordered published or depublished.  Note that this was the last conference in which retiring Chief Justice Ronald M. George will participate.

If you’ve practiced before the California Supreme Court for long, you know that the publication status of a Court of Appeal opinion substantially affects your chances of obtaining review.  This makes sense because the Supreme Court is tasked with “secur[ing] uniformity” in California law (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.500(b)), and no conflict can exist [...]

We wrote about the writ petition filed in the Supreme Court to challenge Prop. 14 and how the court had fast-tracked it.  The court today summarily denied the petition.  The reply to the opposition to the petition was filed just six days ago.

In this recent press release, retiring Chief Justice Ronald M. George paid tribute to Justice Marvin R. Baxter, who will soon celebrate the 20th anniversary of his taking office as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.  The length of Justice Baxter’s service underscores the Court’s remarkable stability in recent decades.  Justice Joyce Kennard has [...]

Plaintiffs’ counsel today made good on his pledge to challenge Friday’s denial of a preliminary injunction to halt the impending sale to private owners of a number of state buildings, including the Supreme Court’s San Francisco and Los Angeles homes.  Plaintiffs filed a writ petition (Epstein v. Superior Court) in the First District Court of Appeal, which, as we noted, [...]

A setback today in the lawsuit seeking to block the sale to private owners of state buildings, including the Supreme Court’s San Francisco and Los Angeles homes.  Despite support for the lawsuit from the Administrative Office of the Courts, a Superior Court judge in San Francisco today denied a preliminary injunction of the sale that is due to close escrow [...]

There are times when the Supreme Court acts with remarkable speed, flexibility and decisiveness to guarantee the right to appeal and to have a controversy decided on its merits.  Today’s opinion in Dana Point Safe Harbor Collective v. Superior Court is a prime example.  As we discussed in this post, the City of Dana Point [...]

We recently explained the need to file new pro hac vice applications at each new level of proceedings in a case that is wending its way up from superior court.  Here’s a related tid bit:   the fee set forth in Government Code 70617 for applications has gone up to $250, effective October 17, 2010.  But [...]

The Court is holding no conference today because it is hearing oral argument in Los Angeles.  Accordingly, this week no action will be taken on petitions for review and no opinions will be ordered published or depublished.

This week gives us more reminders about the great disparity in the amount of time it can take the Supreme Court to decide a case. Yesterday, the court heard oral argument in California Farm Bureau Federation v. State Water Resources Control Board, S150518, more than three and a half years after granting review.  And, according to [...]