(Subscription required) One Los Angeles County judge is likely to oversee coordinated silicosis lawsuits from four California counties, following the asbestos model, despite defense objections, as plaintiffs allege lung disease from countertop dust.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday that a trial judge wrongly concluded that a Bakersfield College professor lacks standing to challenge, on First Amendment grounds, provisions of the Education Code requiring instructors to “employ…practices that reflect…anti-racist principles,” saying the plaintiff had adequately alleged a “credible threat of enforcement” based on his refusal to teach critical race theory in his classes.

A statute that prohibits a prison inmate from possessing any “sharp instrument” is not void for vagueness, Div. Six of this district’s Court of Appeal held yesterday. “A prisoner who has a 14-inch by 1-inch hard non-flexible piece of plastic, sharpened to a point, is a danger to other prisoners and prison officials,” Justice Kenneth Yegan wrote. “This is a lethal weapon.”

(Subscription required) Decades after defending celebrities and Fortune 500 clients, the judge now manages a high-volume calendar with precision, earning respect from attorneys on both sides.