Merrill Balassone reports in a California Courts news release that the Third District Court of Appeal will temporarily move its oral arguments upstairs next week to Room 500 of the Sacramento Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building. The change is “while technical upgrades are made to the Third District’s own courtroom.” That regular courtroom is also used by the Supreme Court when it sits in Sacramento. (Speaking of “technical upgrades,” see here.)
The news release also relates some interesting history:
“Room 500, the fifth-floor courtroom, is the site of some colorful California Supreme Court history. It was originally designed as the courtroom for the Supreme Court but has never been used for oral argument.
“In the early 1900s, the Supreme Court planned to move its headquarters from San Francisco to Sacramento and occupy the building along with the Third Appellate District—with plans for the courtroom to be on the fifth floor.
“But Chief Justice William Waste, who took office in 1926, refused to move the court into what he called an ‘attic.’ (Historians note that facing Sacramento summers before modern air conditioning, he may have been justified.) Architects recreated the courtroom on the first floor, and the fifth-floor courtroom is now used as a public meeting room, complete with air conditioning.”
The entire Mosk Building was extensively renovated over 10 years ago.