Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal Law, Family Law
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July 28, 2026
The Ninth Circuit held that Penal Code section 273.5 does not categorically require the mental state needed for a federal crime-of-violence enhancement.
4th District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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July 27, 2026
The Court of Appeal upheld a firearm search because sealed review supported the warrant and the evidence derived independently from any disputed pre-search detention.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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July 27, 2026
The Ninth Circuit held that the federal interstate-threat statute requires both an objectively threatening communication and a culpable subjective mental state.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal Law, Immigration
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July 23, 2026
The Ninth Circuit held that Oregon felony assault committed in front of a household child categorically qualifies as a removable child-abuse offense.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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July 23, 2026
The Ninth Circuit held that GPS history and on-scene facts gave officers probable cause to search a supervisee’s trailer and pickup under his warrantless-search condition.
4th District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law, Litigation
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July 22, 2026
False-evidence murder claim requires an evidentiary hearing.
6th District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law
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July 21, 2026
Murder resentencing hearing must apply current law and youthfulness evidence.
2nd District Court of Appeal, Administrative Law, Criminal Law
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July 21, 2026
Drugs carried in a car supported mandatory license revocation.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Litigation
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July 21, 2026
The Ninth Circuit ordered a new trial because the district court delayed and inadequately investigated an alternate juror who had expressly prejudged the defense.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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July 17, 2026
A divided Ninth Circuit holds that police executing a computer search warrant must stop searching when evidence they discover negates the probable cause underlying the warrant—and that the good-faith exception does not save evidence found after probable cause dissolves.
5th District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law
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July 17, 2026
The Fifth District Court of Appeal holds that courts may rely on all content in a preliminary hearing transcript—including officer-relayed hearsay under Proposition 115—when screening Penal Code § 1172.6 resentencing petitions at the prima facie stage.
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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, 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.
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, 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.