For the second week in a row, the Supreme Court made no straight grants of review at its Wednesday conference, but there were some actions of note, including:
- Justice Liu separate statement in dependency case questions constitutionality of denying reunification services to jailed parent who cannot make bail
- Supreme Court keeps parts of clemency records sealed
- The court denied review in Levanoff v. Dragas, but it granted the non-party Labor Commissioner’s request to depublish the Fourth District, Division Three, opinion in the case. The appellate court affirmed the dismissal of class action claims by Buffalo Wild Wings employees that several restaurants illegally calculated overtime pay for employees who worked at different rates of pay within a single pay period.
- Big money judgments aren’t necessarily a ticket into the Supreme Court. The court denied review in Hewlett-Packard Co. v. Oracle Corp., where the Sixth District, in a published opinion, affirmed a more than $3 billion judgment for Hewlett-Packard after a jury found Oracle had breached a settlement agreement and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar was recused.
- There were eight criminal case grant-and-holds: one more holding for a decision in People v. Lopez (see here), three more holding for People v. Strong (see here), two more holding for People v. Tirado (see here), and two more holding for In re Mohammad (see here), which will be argued next week.
- The court continued to offload cases that had been People v. Lewis grant-and-holds, dismissing review in eight of them. It decided People v. Lewis (2021) 11 Cal.5th 952 in July. By our count, there are still 307 more Lewis grant-and-holds left on the docket. (See here.)