Long celebrated and derided, the California Environmental Quality Act is facing its strongest overhaul in generations. Buoyed by national criticism that the state can no longer build sufficient housing and public infrastructure, Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers said now is the time for major changes. Negotiations could lead to new laws taking effect within weeks.

A federal appeals court has reversed a ruling that shielded a Los Angeles police officer from liability in a fatal shooting, a decision that experts say could have broad implications for future cases in which law enforcement officials attempt to claim protection from civil lawsuits under the doctrine known as qualified immunity.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an appeal from a private prison company facing a lawsuit claiming immigration detainees were forced to work and paid a $1 a day in Colorado. The GEO Group appealed to the high court after a judge refused to toss out the 2014 lawsuit saying the detainees had to perform both unpaid janitorial work and other jobs for little pay to supplement meager meals.

A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed states to continue to ban semiautomatic AR-15-style rifles, which can be fired repeatedly without reloading and are owned by millions of Americans. But the issue is far from settled. Only two of the nine justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, dissented from the court’s decision to deny review of a federal appeals court ruling in September that upheld Maryland’s AR-15 ban, similar to laws in California and seven other states.