(Subscription required) Over two days of friendly hearings, the Commission on Judicial Appointments approved of eight of Gov. Gavin Newsom's candidates for California's courts of appeal.

A major step forward for the region’s judicial infrastructure was marked recently as officials gathered to break ground on a new, permanent home for the California Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District. The ceremony, attended by Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein, Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero, and other judicial leaders, signals the start of construction on a transformative facility that will replace the court’s long-term leased space in downtown San Jose.

(Subscription required) The state high court will consider whether Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco had the authority under a judicially-approved warrant to seize 650,000 local ballots cast in California’s statewide vote on its Proposition 50 redistricting measure. Bianco intended to investigate voter fraud allegations — even after Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) ordered him to stop.

The court found that the judge in the trial of Dwayne Robinson incorrectly overturned the defense’s objection to the prosecutor rejecting a Black juror without a legally valid reason under section 231.7 of the state’s Code of Civil Procedure, which prohibits the use of peremptory challenge against a juror because of their race, ethnicity, gender or other identities, according to the ruling filed June 12 by California’s First Appellate District.