(Subscription required) After years of balancing work, school, and grueling commutes to earn her law degree, Orange County Judge Carmen D. Snuggs-Spraggins brings patience, practicality, and a willingness to hear the person behind each case to her criminal courtroom.

The California Supreme Court has set the date for oral arguments in two cases filed in response to Sheriff Chad Bianco’s investigation into alleged election irregularities. Both cases will be heard in a special session set for 10 a.m. on August 24 in San Francisco. Earlier this year, Bianco, who at the time was running for governor as a Republican, launched an investigation into alleged election irregularities stemming from the November 2025 special statewide election for Prop 50. 

(Subscription required) The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association lacks final authority to set job classifications and salaries for its own staff, holding that the county board of supervisors retains ultimate control over compensation for pension system staff. The dispute began in 2018 after the county rejected classifications and salaries approved by the pension board for its own employees, ending a longstanding practice under which the county routinely adopted the board's recommendations.

Rejecting claims by 24,000 AIDS patients, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday that pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences acted legally by marketing a drug for years that was effective but had potentially harmful side effects, while withholding another product that was equally effective but less harmful. “A manufacturer cannot be held liable for injuries caused by a nondefective product,” Justice Joshua Groban said in a 6-1 decision overturning a lower-court ruling that had allowed the patients to sue the Foster City-based company.