california supreme court

Good morning, California. It’s Wednesday, March 31. Years-long waits It’s a shocking statistic: 75% of the inmates in California’s county jails — more than 44,000 people — have not been convicted or sentenced for a crime. Instead, they’re largely waiting for arraignment, trial or sentencing. At least 1,300 people have been waiting for more than […]

Across California, 44,241 people are being held in a county jail without being convicted or sentenced for a crime. That’s three quarters of all inmates. At least 1,317 people have been waiting in county jails for more than 3 years. For 332 of them, it’s been longer than 5 years. In 32 counties that gave […]

Good morning, California. It’s Friday, March 26. Statewide network incomplete All Californians 16 and older will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in three weeks, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday. Under the state’s new guidelines, Californians 50 and older — a group that includes Newsom himself — will become eligible on April 1, with those […]

The state’s highest court now says judges must consider a defendant’s ability to pay, but mass inmate release unlikely.

Good morning, California. It’s Friday, March 5. Lots of changes at once Gov. Gavin Newsom is leading California into its largest and fastest reopening since the state first shut down nearly a year ago — even as questions remain as to whether the necessary infrastructure is in place. State lawmakers on Thursday sent to Newsom’s […]

New data from the state’s Judicial Council touts an increase in women judges and people of color on the bench, but Latinos, in particular, remain poorly represented in many Superior Courts.

Good morning, California. It’s Tuesday, October 6. Gov’s first nominee Gov. Gavin Newsom made his first appointment to the California Supreme Court on Monday, nominating retired Justice Martin Jenkins to fill the seat vacated in August by the court’s most conservative member, Justice Ming Chin. If confirmed, Jenkins, 66, would be the first openly gay […]

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 […]

The California Supreme Court is making it easier to enact specialized local taxes, which could erode budgetary authority of elected officials.

Today’s ruling gives counties the right to prevent “abuse of the pension system,” but stops short of ending a half-century of precedent. “It’s probably great news for pension lawyers.”