Div. Four of the First District Court of Appeal has held that, at evidentiary hearings aimed at determining whether retroactive amendments to the felony murder rule undermine a defendant’s conviction, courts are to ask whether prosecutors have shown that the suspect is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and not whether the suspect could be convicted of the charge under current law.

County governments in California can establish agencies to oversee their sheriff’s offices and obtain their records under a ruling affirmed Wednesday by the state Supreme Court. The justices unanimously denied an appeal by Sonoma County sheriff’s officers and their union of a lower-court ruling upholding the authority of an independent agency established by county supervisors in 2016 and strengthened by a ballot measure approved by local voters in 2020.

(Subscription required) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday weighed the constitutionality of a California law that bars employers from disciplining workers who decline to attend meetings about religious or political matters unrelated to their job duties.

Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan will appear July 14 before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, which has jurisdiction over the annual spending measure that funds the Supreme Court, according to a scheduling announcement from House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole.