The Court of Appeal for this district has held that a judge, in ruling on motions pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure §664.6 to enforce a settlement agreement, overstepped his bounds of authority by declaring that all sides had fully performed and dismissing the action.

A Southern California school district’s ban on teaching “critical race theory” — the history and culture of civil rights and racial discrimination — violates its students’ educational rights, a state appeals court ruled Monday.

The Butler opinion, Kline contends, “resurrects all the constitutional and other problems created by the structure of indeterminate sentencing” and it is partially to blame for current prison overcrowding because of its “validation of the Board’s refusal to acknowledge the constitutional limitations of its power to punish.” 

(Subscription required) AI tools risk undermining judicial legitimacy by offering conclusions without transparent reasoning--but troubling evidence shows that some human judges also fail to consistently apply legal principles, especially in emotionally charged "bad guy" cases, suggesting that AI may sometimes deliver more impartial outcomes.