Div. Four of this district’s Court of Appeal has held that judgment was properly entered against four general law cities in Los Angeles County challenging Senate Bill 9 which greenlights splitting lots zoned for single-family homes into two-unit properties and guts the authority of local governments to review the transition, finding that they failed to show that any constitutional provision was breached by the Legislature’s action.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday that a journalist is likely to succeed on his claim asserting that an Alameda County ordinance criminalizing being a spectator at “sideshows”—defined as street races or reckless driving exhibitions that block or impede traffic on a street or highway—violates his First Amendment right to report on the events.

A judge, after a police officer referred in testimony to the defendant’s “moniker,” properly admonished the witness, outside the presence of the jury, to use, instead, the word “nickname,” Div. Eight of the Court of Appeal for this district said yesterday, holding that this sufficiently guarded against further prejudice and that declaring a mistrial—on the theory that the term that was used connotes gang membership—was not required.

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