Div. One of the Fourth District Court of Appeal has reversed an order awarding a San Diego criminal defense attorney primary physical custody of his son, holding that a judge erred in basing the decision largely on the child’s expressed desires and without focusing on whether the father had rebutted the statutory presumption of unfitness on the part of a litigant who has committed a domestic battery.

Div. Five of this district’s Court of Appeal has rejected a plaintiff’s assertion that a trial judge erred in denying her request for a new trial after declarations were submitted from members of the panel indicating that some jurors had provided translation services to another panelist, who had expressed concerns over her English skills during voir dire.

California teens will be barred from “addictive” social media products and limited in their interactions with chatbots under two of the 13 bills signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom today to protect kids online. The law on addictive social media may be the most controversial. It will require social media companies to either stop offering “addictive” tools like infinite scroll and autoplay to users under 16 or to keep those users off their platforms entirely. 

Since 2019, the Brennan Center has collected data detailing racial, ethnic, and gender demographics on state high courts across the country, and expanded the data collection in 2021 to include the professional backgrounds of justices who sit on these courts.