Justice

Updated on November 10, 2020 Martin Jenkins was unanimously confirmed today to the California Supreme Court, making him the first openly gay justice on the state’s highest court. Jenkins, who was born and raised in the Bay Area, is also the third Black man to serve as a justice in the court’s history — and […]

Activists filled the streets but couldn’t fill the Capitol. And lawmakers ran out of time to hash out complex laws. A few bills passed, but the most controversial ones stalled.

In a year when the coronavirus pandemic upended every aspect of normal life, the impact in the California Capitol was also dramatic. Lawmakers took an unprecedented two-month pause in the spring, when Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide order for people to stay home to prevent the spread of the virus. They returned to the […]

State lawmakers will decide the fate of 15 reform bills during a pandemic-shortened session marked by civil unrest and an economic crisis. Not all of them will make it.

California’s patchwork reentry system is scrambling to find housing and services for former inmates. “What this pandemic has done is highlight the inadequacies in the system,” said one program director.

Hybrid nurse-officers are being phased out statewide, but many earned six-figure salaries. One in Vacaville more than tripled his salary.

Assemblyman Phil Ting admitted to a "personal failure" after a domestic worker who advocated for controversial labor legislation said they’d had a sexual relationship. Party activists are now pondering: Was this a private matter, or a professional breach?

It almost sounds like kindergarten: Sit down and talk about what you did wrong. But these neighborhood courts are for adults — and aim to reduce incarceration and reimagine criminal justice.

If this state is the nation’s laboratory for progressive laws, why has it been unable to keep the police from policing themselves?

Efforts aim to dispatch mental health teams — not armed officers — for most crises calls involving mental illness and homelessness.