California Legislature

While Congress bickers over long-delayed reforms and other states cut spending, California is trying to confront the stubborn problems that are plaguing higher education nationwide, but seem seldom to be solved.

In the lead opinion, California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye says the state constitution makes clear "it is the voters who must decide" whether a presidential candidate's refusal to publicly share tax returns will have consequences at the ballot box. Many constitutional law experts, former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and the California Republican Party are now all officially entitled to say, "I told you so."

Justices question state's attempt to force Trump to disclose taxes. Number of women in legislature grows. Trump appoints more judges to 9th Circuit.

Based on an analysis of the 1,042 bills that the governor signed or vetoed this year, Gavin Newsom is more moderate than any other Democratic state senator and sits to the left of only two Democrats in the Assembly.

It has long been a refrain among California students struggling to pay for housing, food and textbooks: There’s more to the high cost of college than tuition. Early this year, as state lawmakers convened, hopes were high that finally, California was listening.  Moved by reports of homelessness, food insecurity and consumer ripoffs on campus — […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed two child support reform bills that anti-poverty advocates had hoped would give a boost to low-income families in California. The bills would have sent more child support money to families receiving public benefits and eliminated interest on overdue child support payments owed to the government. Supporters had argued that the […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom's choices this year reflect his vision for California, and resist his predecessor and the president.

San Francisco privacy advocate Alastair Mactaggart is filing a new initiative to create a privacy bill of rights. The initiative could face challenges.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a Democrat from San Diego, is among California’s more powerful state lawmakers and an ally of labor unions. This year, she led the fight to win new protections for gig workers, and won passage of a landmark workplace bill, AB 5. To launch our new video series of political profiles, “The Deciders,” […]

Even by the last-minute, helter-skelter standards of the end of California’s legislative session, the past 24 hours were remarkable. It will go down in Capitol lore having culminated in the Senate’s emergency relocation, a woman’s arrest, and a senator’s morning-after visit to the doctor in accordance with “safety protocols for blood exposure.” At around 5:15 […]