California’s newest laws could change how your utility spends your money, whether an employer can rely on AI to fire you and what your children encounter on social media.

The US Supreme Court is hearing a series of important cases during its new term that begins on Monday involving issues such as President Donald Trump's immigration policies, assault-style rifle bans, Big Oil's financial liability for climate change, Republican-backed voting restrictions, LGBT rights and more.

(Subscription required) As the U.S. Supreme Court opens its 2026-27 term Monday, the justices are again turning their attention to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with six appeals from the circuit already on the merits docket. The cases span a wide range of issues, from an Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute involving Intel Corp. to Apple Inc.'s challenge to a contempt finding by Northern District of California Chief Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in its long-running fight with Epic Games Inc.

Of the bills sent to Newsom in 2026, he signed 1,040. Those bills ranged from providing more training opportunities for people to recognize opioid overdoses and administer naloxone to considering forced marriage as grounds for seeking a domestic violence restraining order. There’s legislation requiring high school coaches to complete mental health training to better help their players, and another creating a first-in-the-nation state seal to identify non-ultraprocessed foods.