(Subscription required) The unanimous justices said the potential for declaratory relief, which can trigger fee awards, can encourage public agencies to fully comply with California's records law.

On Friday, the California Supreme Court denied Flores’ second appeal to overturn or reduce his conviction — his last opportunity to do so. Flores, 49, was convicted of Smart’s murder in October 2022 following a three-month trial. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.

The congressional map approved by California voters to boost the number of House Democrats was upheld Wednesday by a divided federal court, which said they were legally drawn for political purposes and not as an act of racial discrimination, as Republicans contended.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, yesterday overruled its own precedent establishing that unpreserved claims raised for the first time on an appeal of a criminal judgment may be considered de novo if they raise pure questions of law, saying the carve-out to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure, rule 52, which specifies that only “[a] plain error…may be considered,” contravenes U.S. Supreme Court guidance and the statute’s plain terms.