In observance of Halloween, which is a very big deal at our firm, we thought a post about the Court’s haunted history was in order.  It turns out you don’t have to look very far before you find that the Court is intimately connected to things that go bump in the night.  Case in point:  In [...]

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, October 26, 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 has released a new official photo of the court as presently constituted, including newly appointed Associate Justice Goodwin Liu.  The court has provided a high resolution version of the photo, which we’ve added as a permanent link on this blog.      Note to practitioners: the seating arrangement of the justices [...]

The Supreme Court today denied two different writ petitions that were filed to challenge the first legislative district maps drawn by the new California Citizens Redistricting Commission.  (The writ proceeding filings are here; the dockets for the two proceedings are here and here.)  We haven’t seen the orders yet, but, from the dockets, it looks like the petitions [...]

According to the Court’s website, no opinions will be filed today and, therefore, no opinions will be filed until this Thursday, October 27, at the earliest. The Court issued its most recent opinion, People v. Clark (2011) 52 Cal.4th 856, on August 29.   The last civil opinion issued was Seabright Ins. Co. v. U.S. Airways [...]

The Supreme Court can grant review  “[f]or the purpose of transferring the matter to the Court of Appeal for such proceedings as the Supreme Court may order.”  (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.500(b)(4).)  This procedure is commonly called a “grant-and-transfer.” To the extent confusion surrounds the procedure, it stems from the fact that it is [...]

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, October 19, 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 scheduled a special oral argument for the high-profile and fast-track case that will decide the fate of California’s redevelopment agencies — California Redevelopment Association v. Matosantos.  The court posted its November calendar two weeks ago, but it has now ordered a hearing in the redevelopment case on November 10, the day after it finishes [...]

As we’ve mentioned, Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court, S166350, is set for argument on November 8 at 9:00 a.m. in San Francisco.  That high-profile case “presents issues concerning the proper interpretation of California’s statutes and regulations governing an employer’s duty to provide meal and rest breaks to hourly workers.”  On Wednesday, the California Channel [...]

In its conference on Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 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.

When Governor Brown vetoed a bill that would have overturned a January California Supreme Court decision permitting warrantless searches of cell phone text messages, he said courts were “better suited” to make such decisions.  We failed to note an earlier veto (hat tip:  PointofLaw) that more explicitly endorsed the Supreme Court’s work. The Legislature passed AB 559 to overturn [...]

Governor Brown today vetoed a bill that would have reversed a California Supreme Court decision.  The decision allows warrantless, incident-to-arrest searches of cell phone text messages.  In his veto message, the governor said, “The courts are better suited to resolve the complex and case-specific issues relating to constitutional search-and-seizures protections.”

Last week, the Court issued its Annual Workload Statistics for the period from September 1, 2010 through August 31, 2011.   Total filings exceeded 10,000 in that period for only the second time in a decade.  The Court kept pace though, and total dispositions increased 15.5 percent over the previous year.  However, due to changes in [...]

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

What’s the most amicus curiae briefs filed in the Supreme Court in one case on a single day?  We’re not sure, but Monday in the redevelopment case should at least be in the running for the record.  The court filed 11 amicus briefs in the case that day.  Five more were filed yesterday and today.  Under the [...]

The Supreme Court yesterday posted its November calendar, which for the third straight month will be heard in San Francisco.  The court will hear 12 cases, including Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court, 27 months after the last parties’ brief was filed in that case.  One third of the arguments are in death penalty cases. The cases [...]

As noted, the California Supreme Court ruled nine months ago that police can search an arrestee’s cell phone text messages without a warrant, the defendant asked the United States Supreme Court to hear the case, and, with the defendant’s certiorari petition still pending, the California Legislature passed a bill to overturn the California Supreme Court’s decision.  Well, now [...]

As you may recall, a while back we conducted some research to determine how often the justices dissent from the denial of review.  This can be meaningful information for practitioners because, by dissenting from the denial of review, a justice signals that he or she believes the question presented is worthy of review.  (As this [...]