NewsLinks is a collection of recent news items relating primarily to the California judicial branch. NewsLinks does not verify or endorse the accuracy or fairness of the news items, and the views expressed in opinions, editorials, and commentaries are those of the writers only. Some news articles linked from this page may require a subscription or be behind a paywall.

NewsLinks

  • Justice 250: Know Your Constitutional Rights

    California Courts Newsroom
    July 7, 2026

    Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero joined the “Justice 250” event, which centered on reinforcing the rights and liberties embodied in the Declaration of Independence, highlighting how justice has progressed over the last 250 years and how it can be protected going forward.

  • ‘Could Be Convicted’ Today Is Not Resentencing Standard

    Metropolitan News-Enterprise
    July 8, 2026

    Div. Four of the First District Court of Appeal has held that, at evidentiary hearings aimed at determining whether retroactive amendments to the felony murder rule undermine a defendant’s conviction, courts are to ask whether prosecutors have shown that the suspect is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and not whether the suspect could be convicted of the charge under current law.

  • Justices Kagan and Barrett on tap to testify on Capitol Hill next week

    Politico
    July 7, 2026

    Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan will appear July 14 before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, which has jurisdiction over the annual spending measure that funds the Supreme Court, according to a scheduling announcement from House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole.

  • 9th Circuit Mulls First Amendment Challenge to California's Mandatory Meeting Law

    The National Law Journal
    July 7, 2026

    (Subscription required) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday weighed the constitutionality of a California law that bars employers from disciplining workers who decline to attend meetings about religious or political matters unrelated to their job duties.

    Related: Daily Journal, Reuters

  • Judicial Profile: Los Angeles County Commissioner Aleen Avanesian

    Daily Journal
    July 8, 2026

    (Subscription required) After nearly two decades prosecuting misdemeanor cases for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, Commissioner Aleen M. Avanesian now presides over child support and parentage matters, emphasizing careful preparation, patience and ensuring every litigant feels heard.

  • Case in Which Vanna White Sued for Breach of Right of Publicity Defeats Rapper’s Suit

    Metropolitan News-Enterprise
    July 7, 2026

    The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in affirming the dismissal with prejudice of an action brought by a rapper/chef who complains that her persona was pilfered by Amazon.com, has applied a 1992 decision arising under California law declaring that there was no violation of television hostess Vanna White’s right of publicity in using, in a commercial, a robot resembling her standing on a Wheel of Fortune-like set.

  • Suit Over Book-Jacket Blurb Lionizing Author Was SLAPP

    Metropolitan News-Enterprise
    July 7, 2026

    The Court of Appeal for this district has held that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge properly granted an anti-SLAPP motion in a case where a man sued Simon & Schuster, contending the author of memoirs, his brother-in-law, is falsely portrayed on the inside flap of the dust jacket as a virtuous man when, in actuality, he was charged in the 1980s with three felony counts of receiving of stolen property.

  • C.A. Sanctions, Then Forgives, Pro Per for Phony Citations

    Metropolitan News-Enterprise
    July 7, 2026

    Div. Two of the Fourth District Court of Appeal has almost penalized a pro per appellant for filing a brief containing phony citations, apparently the product of artificial intelligence “hallucinations,” but, after ordering payment of $500 by her, declared that “[e]xecution of the sanction is suspended.”