Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Administrative Law, Environmental Law
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July 7, 2026
The Ninth Circuit vacates key portions of the EPA's 2024 flame-retardant rule, finding EPA failed to adequately regulate decaBDE exposures in recycled plastics, disposal, wastewater, and sewage sludge as required by the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Administrative Law, Immigration
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July 7, 2026
The Ninth Circuit holds that a drug trafficking conviction supports denial of withholding of removal, and rules that a prior Chevron-based statutory precedent retains binding force under Loper Bright's doctrine of statutory stare decisis.
4th District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Labor & Employment Law, Litigation
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July 6, 2026
The Fourth District holds that an employer's statutory right to seek a workplace violence restraining order on behalf of its employees cannot be signed away in a separation agreement, and strikes as a First Amendment violation a provision barring an elected board member from discussing the restraining order at public meetings.
1st District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law, Litigation
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July 6, 2026
The First District publishes this opinion specifically to flag a recurring error: at a section 1172.6 evidentiary hearing, the trial court is an independent fact-finder who must decide whether the petitioner IS guilty beyond a reasonable doubt under current law — not whether a jury 'could' convict them.
California Supreme Court, Civil Procedure, Litigation, Personal Injury & Tort
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July 2, 2026
The California Supreme Court unanimously holds that the federal two-dismissal rule (FRCP 41(a)(1)(B)) bars re-filing only in federal court and does not preclude a subsequent action in California state court, reversing dismissal of school sexual abuse claims.
California Supreme Court, Criminal Law
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July 2, 2026
The California Supreme Court holds that a prior prison term enhancement (Pen. Code § 667.5(b)) is 'imposed' and thus invalidated under § 1172.75 even when the sentencing court struck the punishment for the enhancement, entitling the defendant to a full resentencing hearing.
2nd District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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July 2, 2026
The Second District Court of Appeal grants habeas corpus and vacates a second-degree murder conviction after finding the prosecution allowed false eyewitness testimony to stand uncorrected — and defense counsel failed to cross-examine the witnesses with their own prior contradictory police statements — in a gang-related retrial.
2nd District Court of Appeal, Family Law
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July 2, 2026
The Second District dismisses a mother's dependency appeal as moot after the juvenile court terminated jurisdiction and granted her sole custody, holding that allowing a father with known guns access to children constitutes 'general neglect' — not the 'severe neglect' that would trigger a reportable CACI listing.
3rd District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Labor & Employment Law
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July 2, 2026
The Third District Court of Appeal affirms the trial court's refusal to compel arbitration of an auto dealership employee's wage and hour claims, finding the employer's adhesive arbitration agreements unconscionable under Cook v. University of Southern California (2024) due to high economic coercion and one-sided third-party beneficiary provisions.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Administrative Law, Environmental Law
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July 2, 2026
The Ninth Circuit, 2-1, holds that the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) does not preempt the South Coast Air Quality Management District's Rule 1146.2, which phases in zero-NOx emission standards for gas water heaters and boilers to bring the Los Angeles Basin into compliance with federal ozone standards under the Clean Air Act.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal Law
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July 2, 2026
The Ninth Circuit affirms money laundering convictions and most sentencing enhancements in a $2.5 million Target gift-card laundering scheme, but vacates and remands because the district court improperly applied the sophisticated-laundering enhancement under USSG § 2S1.1(b)(3) without first applying the required predicate enhancement under § 2S1.1(b)(2)(B).
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Environmental Law
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July 2, 2026
The Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 that the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) does not preempt SCAQMD's Rule 1146.2, which phases out gas-fired water heaters and boilers across Southern California to achieve compliance with federal ozone standards — dealing a major setback to appliance manufacturers challenging the ban.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal Law, Litigation
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July 2, 2026
The Ninth Circuit vacated a sophisticated-laundering sentencing enhancement because the district court applied the enhancement without first working through the required preceding step in U.S.S.G. § 2S1.1(b)(2), remanding for limited resentencing of three defendants convicted in a large-scale gift-card laundering scheme.
4th District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Litigation
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July 1, 2026
The Fourth District reversed a DUI conviction, holding that a warrantless blood draw from a sedated hospital patient was unconstitutional where the arresting officer faced no competing investigative demands and never considered seeking a warrant.
1st District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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June 30, 2026
The First District affirms dismissal of three state charges against David DePape — including attempted murder — under California's statutory double jeopardy protection, holding that mental-state elements cannot save a state charge when the required physical act was already proved in a prior federal conviction.
1st District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law, Litigation
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June 30, 2026
The First District holds that a trial court's mathematical error in calculating presentence custody credits is a clerical error the court can correct at any time — but that correction does not render the judgment nonfinal or entitle the defendant to full resentencing under ameliorative legislation, rejecting a contrary line of cases.
1st District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Labor & Employment Law, Litigation
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June 30, 2026
The First District grants a writ of mandate requiring Tesla to face five joint complaints from 440 Black factory workers, holding that permissive joinder under CCP § 378 is proper where all plaintiffs allege injury from the same factory-wide pattern of racial discrimination — and that manageability concerns cannot justify ordering mass individual re-filings.
3rd District Court of Appeal, Administrative Law, Environmental Law, Tax (non-estate)
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June 29, 2026
The Third District struck down a Tehama County groundwater district's per-acre annual charge as an unconstitutional tax rather than a valid regulatory fee, ruling that Proposition 26 bars a fee imposed on parcels with no groundwater wells for a well-registration program that provides no direct service to those parcels.
4th District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law
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June 29, 2026
The Fourth District held that a trial court did not abuse its discretion by refusing to apply Penal Code section 1170(b)(6)'s lower-term presumption for childhood trauma where the defendant failed to establish any causal connection between the trauma and his robbery conviction committed at age 36.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law
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June 29, 2026
The Ninth Circuit ruled that sovereign immunity does not block a person from recovering seized cash that a federal agent stole and the government later recouped in restitution proceedings, reversing summary judgment for the government in a case where an FBI agent pocketed $218,200 of money seized during a drug investigation.
2nd District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Litigation
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June 29, 2026
A California appellate court ruled that a law firm's failure to disclose the potential conflict of interest in representing hundreds of sexual-abuse victims against the same defendant voided the entire engagement agreement — including its arbitration clause — under the state's professional responsibility rules.
4th District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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June 26, 2026
The Fourth District holds that Penal Code § 1172.75(d)(4) permits a resentencing court to reimpose an originally imposed upper term without new jury findings or stipulations, even if the court considers different aggravating factors.
4th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Family Law
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June 26, 2026
The Fourth District holds that where a juvenile court treats a father as a presumed father throughout dependency proceedings without expressly saying so, the implied findings doctrine satisfies the requirement — but an explicit finding must be directed on remand, alongside mandatory ICWA compliance.
4th District Court of Appeal, Administrative Law, Environmental Law, Litigation
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June 26, 2026
The Fourth District upholds the City of San Diego's 20-year gas and electric franchise agreements with SDG&E, rejecting challenges under CEQA, Proposition 26, and the City Charter's competitive bidding rules, while striking a supermajority termination clause as inconsistent with the Charter.
California Supreme Court, Criminal Law, Litigation
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June 25, 2026
The California Supreme Court holds that Penal Code section 2900.5 awards custody credits on a case-by-case basis — consolidating multiple prosecutions at a single sentencing hearing does not entitle a defendant to credit the same period of custody against all cases.