The Supreme Court last week announced that it will hear in September the Prop. 8 standing case that was referred by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  (The California Channel has filed a request to televise the argument.)  It subsequently published its entire September calendar.  The calendar includes the names of Court of Appeal justices who will [...]

The following is our summary of the Supreme Court’s actions on petitions for review in civil cases from the Court’s conference on Wednesday, July 27, 2011.  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 [...]

The Supreme Court today ordered the Prop. 8 case on calendar for September 6 at 10:00 a.m.  The court has not yet published its September calendar, leading us to guess that the Prop. 8 case might be heard all by itself on that day.  The court is scheduled to hear oral arguments the following day just [...]

We’ve noted that the California Supreme Court has the authority to answer state law questions referred to it by courts of other jurisdictions and that the Supreme Court will usually agree to answer those questions when asked to do so.  But not always.  The court today declined to answer the Ninth Circuit’s question about special education [...]

The Commission on Judicial Appointments will meet on August 31 to consider Governor Brown’s appointment of Professor Goodwin Liu to the California Supreme Court. If confirmed and sworn in that day, as expected, the new justice will have less than a week until the start of the court’s next oral argument calendar, which may well include the [...]

The Ninth Circuit’s loss is California’s gain.  Governor Jerry Brown has nominated Boalt Hall law professor Goodwin Liu to replace retired Justice Carlos Moreno on the California Supreme Court.  President Obama had nominated Liu for a seat on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but Senate Republicans refused to even let his nomination come up for [...]

Two recent news stories share a common link.  Or, at least, I see a link. Most prominent is the drastic reduction in funding for the courts, a topic we’ve commented on frequently.  The Judicial Council yesterday approved cuts of 8.6% for the trial courts, 9.7% for appellate courts, and 12% for the Judicial Council and the Administrative [...]

The following is our summary of the Supreme Court’s actions on petitions for review in civil cases from the Court’s conference on Wednesday, July 20, 2011.  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 [...]

The draconian state budget isn’t hurting only the courts.  The list of victims is a long one and it includes California’s redevelopment agencies.  According to the Associated Press, “The Legislature approved two budget bills in June that would eliminate the state’s 400 redevelopment agencies by Oct. 1.  It allowed local governments to launch new agencies [...]

Tuesday’s Daily Journal article by Laura Ernde ["Employment lawyers continue to wait for Brinker decision"; subscription required] notes that some have expressed consternation over the fact that the California Supreme Court has not yet scheduled oral argument in the Brinker Restaurant v. Superior Court case, even though briefing on the merits was completed in July 2009.  [...]

We’ve been following the see-saw battle over funding for California’s courts, most recently in this post, regarding an interview in which the Chief Justice blasted the Legislature’s $350 million reduction to the judicial branch’s budget.   According to a recent article in the Daily Journal [subscription required], the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has responded [...]

The following is our summary of the Supreme Court’s actions on petitions for review in civil cases from the Court’s conference on Wednesday, July 13, 2011.  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 [...]

The California Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Code of Judicial Ethics is seeking public comment on proposed amendments to the code.  According to this press release, “The recommendations focus primarily on disclosures of campaign contributions by trial judges and disqualification of appellate justices based on such contributions.”  In addition, the committee recommends “mandatory education [...]

This is the second in our series of posts about California’s Reporter of Decisions.  One thing you may not know about the Reporter of Decisions is that he or she is responsible for editing the California Style Manual, also known as the Yellow Book.  According to this article, in 1942, when the legendary Bernard E. [...]

KPCC reports on Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye’s speech yesterday to a meeting of Town Hall Los Angeles.  Among other things, she said legislators “aren’t really sold on the idea” of the importance of the judicial branch of government.  Whenever the Chief gives her twice-postponed first State of the Judiciary address to the Legislature, the message, and [...]

In the course of preparing our weekly summaries of the Supreme Court’s conference reports and other blog posts, there are certain pending cases that come up again and again.  Most often, they come to our attention because the Court repeatedly has issued grant-and-holds in other cases pending its resolution of the lead case.  At other [...]

The Supreme Court is holding no conference today.  Accordingly, this week no action will be taken on petitions for review and no opinions will be ordered published or depublished. The court conferences on most Wednesdays.  The exceptions are the Wednesdays during the 11 weeks a year when the justices are hearing oral arguments (from September through June), during the first weeks of July [...]