• Newsom appoints 15 judges across California superior courts

    Daily Journal
    March 27, 2026

    (Subscription required) The appointments span Alameda, Contra Costa, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Placer, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, reflecting a mix of professional backgrounds in private practice, public defense, prosecution and government service.  

  • Opinion: California’s civic seal is growing. Now we must expand access.

    Fulcrum
    March 26, 2026

    The most visible gaps are in settings where students may already feel distant from traditional recognition. In 2024–25, just one juvenile court, one community day, and two opportunity schools awarded the Seal, and standalone special education schools did not participate. If the SSCE is meant to expand civic opportunity, ensuring that it reaches these contexts will require flexible pathways and targeted implementation support.

  • Becerra, voting rights group challenge GOP sheriff’s ballot seizure in state Supreme Court

    San Francisco Chronicle
    March 26, 2026

    The sheriff had no authority “to seize hundreds of thousands of lawfully cast ballots under the guise of a criminal investigation,” lawyers for the UCLA Voting Rights Project and former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra argued in a filing with the court on behalf o

    Related: The Sacramento Bee, Courthouse News Service

  • Validity of DMV Hearing Does Not Turn on Advocacy Inquiry

    Metropolitan News-Enterprise
    March 26, 2026

    Div. Five of the First District Court of Appeal has rejected the view that a California Department of Motor Vehicles hearing violated a petitioner’s due process rights because the presiding administrative officer ruled on evidentiary objections relating to documents that the same adjudicator moved to introduce.