Posts Tagged: California Supreme Court
News
An 11-year lawsuit that helped transform how California cares for people who have committed crimes and struggle with mental illness has come to a quiet conclusion. In a five-page order issued last Monday, Judge S. Raj Chatterjee of Contra Costa County wrote that the state created a new treatment program for people who are arrested and deemed to be incompetent to stand trial, added more than 2,000 state hospital beds to care for them, and secured a permanent source of funding.
News
As his time as governor comes to an end, Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing a life-or-death decision: whether to commute the sentences of the 547 men and 18 women in state prison who have been condemned to death. There is good reason to believe Newsom will take that step, and there is reason to believe he won’t. Neither he nor his aides are telegraphing his plan.
Micheli Files
Because bills cannot be amended in the final three days of the Session, authors and interest groups have been utilizing letters to the Assembly and Senate Daily Journals in an effort to modify their “intent,” or even address concerns with explicit bill language that cannot be amended. Unfortunately, the use of these letters cannot be a substitute for making actual changes to the proposed statutory language.
Micheli Files
What is the enrolled bill in California and why do lawmakers care about it? Lobbyist and law professor explains it all for you in today’s Micheli Files.
Opinion
Opinion – Rideshare gave me the flexibility to continue pursuing educational passions while serving my community in a new way. Assembly Bill 1340, which is currently moving through the State Legislature, threatens to take that away from me and from millions of Californians who rely on this work
News
AB 1340 represents roughly a decade or more of work by labor in the state. Ever since Uber launched in 2009, there’s been an ongoing, global debate on whether rideshare drivers are indeed independent contractors, as claimed by the apps, or bona fide employees, as claimed by workers and labor advocates.
Micheli Files
Both the Legislature and the Governor in California play critical roles in the development and adoption of the state budget. Relevant provisions of state law related to the budget process are contained in Article IV of the state Constitution.
News
In late March, Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, amended a spot bill, SB 47, to order the State Auditor to conduct an audit of the February 2025 bar exam. The bill would direct the auditor to submit findings “as soon as possible” to the Bar’s board of trustees, the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court and the Senate Judiciary Committee and its Assembly counterpart.
News
In California, court hearings are regularly held without a verbatim or near-verbatim record ever being created. Some legal advocates say that’s a violation of basic constitutional protections and blame an unusual state law for the problem.
Micheli Files
Many Capitol observers are aware of the single subject rule. Some know that the California Constitution, in Article II, Section 8(d), provides that “an initiative measure embracing more than one subject may not be submitted to the electors or have any effect.” But does a similar rule exist for bills considered by the California Legislature?
Dr. Katherine Warburton, Statewide Medical Director and Deputy Director of Clinical Operations for the California Department of State Hospitals, center. Kirsten Barlow, left, Lois Cross and Michelle Doty Cabrera on the right. From California Health Care, Panel 3: Behavioral Health. Photo by Joha Harrison, Capitol Weekly.
