4th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law
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July 16, 2026
The Fourth District Court of Appeal held that California's criminal discovery statute (Penal Code § 1054.3(b)(1)) does not authorize a trial court to compel a defendant seeking pretrial mental health diversion to undergo a prosecution mental examination, because the diversion hearing is not a trial at which the defendant has placed mental state in issue through expert testimony.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
automatic /
July 16, 2026
The Ninth Circuit denied panel rehearing and rehearing en banc in a Second Amendment challenge to California's switchblade knife regulations, leaving intact a panel ruling that California's ban on the concealed carry of switchblade knives survives a facial constitutional challenge under the Bruen framework.
2nd District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
automatic /
July 15, 2026
California's Second District Court of Appeal affirmed that placing child-luring offenders in the lifetime sex offender registration tier does not violate equal protection, because the Legislature could rationally find that the predatory, premeditated nature of luring crimes signals a higher risk of recidivism than other sex offenses.
2nd District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
automatic /
July 13, 2026
The Second District Court of Appeal upholds California’s ban on carrying concealed dirks and daggers as facially constitutional under the Supreme Court’s Bruen text-and-history test, pointing to a robust historical tradition of concealed-weapons prohibitions.
4th District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law
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July 13, 2026
The Fourth District Court of Appeal, on remand from the California Supreme Court, holds that a trial court ordering pretrial detention must make an express finding by clear and convincing evidence that no less restrictive condition than incarceration will adequately protect public safety — “balancing” alternatives against danger is not enough.
3rd District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, Litigation
automatic /
July 10, 2026
The Third District reversed a civil asset forfeiture judgment as to one claimant because the jury's special verdict was internally inconsistent: it found he had an ownership interest in the seized cash and that some of it was innocent, yet awarded him nothing.
5th District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law, Litigation
automatic /
July 10, 2026
The Fifth District held that driving under the influence causing injury is not a lesser included offense of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, because the manslaughter statute can be committed in ways that do not require violating the DUI-with-injury statute.
3rd District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
automatic /
July 8, 2026
The Third District held that a juvenile offender's 50-year determinate sentence is not the functional equivalent of life without parole — and therefore does not qualify for resentencing under Penal Code section 1170(d)(1) — because section 3051 gave him a meaningful parole opportunity during his 15th year of incarceration.
1st District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law, Litigation
automatic /
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, 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
automatic /
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.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal Law
automatic /
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, Criminal Law, Litigation
automatic /
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
automatic /
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, Criminal Law, Litigation
automatic /
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, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
automatic /
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.
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
automatic /
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.
4th District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
automatic /
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.
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.
4th District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
automatic /
June 25, 2026
The Fourth District holds that officers who reasonably but mistakenly identified a juvenile as a murder-warrant fugitive had probable cause to arrest him, and that after realizing the mistake they lawfully searched him incident to a resisting-arrest charge, making the discovered firearm admissible.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal Law, Immigration
automatic /
June 25, 2026
In its first post-Loper Bright interpretation of the federal immigration removal ground for crimes of child abuse, the Ninth Circuit holds that the statute covers child endangerment, requires criminal negligence mens rea, and applies regardless of whether the defendant is the child's parent — and that California Penal Code § 273a(a) falls within its scope.
1st District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law
automatic /
June 24, 2026
The First District holds that California's 2025 elimination of joint and several liability in juvenile restitution cases applies prospectively only, leaving pre-2025 restitution orders intact even for pending appeals.
2nd District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law
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June 22, 2026
The Second Appellate District affirmed denial of pretrial mental health diversion under Penal Code § 1001.36, holding that the trial court had substantial evidence to find the statutory presumption rebutted where the defendant's diagnosed depressive disorder — characterized by poor concentration and forgetfulness — was fundamentally inconsistent with years of coordinated, sophisticated financial crimes.
1st District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law, Litigation
automatic /
June 17, 2026
The First District reversed a second-degree murder conviction because the trial court failed to clarify — when the jury asked mid-deliberation — that the rule ending self-defense once danger passes does not also eliminate the lesser defense of imperfect self-defense.