The California Supreme Court has had quite the year. The annual "Year in Review" is in, and the data is, as usual, fascinating.
The court received nearly 7,000 filings from September 2017 through August 2018, and processed close to the same number of dispositions during that time. Notably, 85 opinions were issued, 39 in civil cases, while the remaining were split evenly between criminal and death row cases.
Other big highlights from the last year involve: the success of the live streaming oral arguments, which received over 25,000 listeners; And (how can we forget about) the sweeping changes that were made to the code of attorney conduct.
Prop 66 in Effect
As explained in the court's write-up, Prop 66 was approved back in 2016 by the voters and one major part of the proposition revamps the way habeas petitions were adjudicated. And despite the challenges, he California Supreme Court has started the process and sent over a dozen cases to be handled in the respective courts.
The Search for Justice Number 7
Unfortunately, the California High Court has made history over the last year in a not very good way. The court has been down its seventh justice for over a year now. While the judges on the state's appellate courts have been happy to pitch in and sit by designation, this is the longest stretch of time ever that a seat has remained vacant on the California Supreme Court.
Related Resources:
- Prop. 66 Ruling: Death Penalty Appeal Time Limit Not Enforceable (FindLaw's California Case Law)
- Are Butter Knives Deadly Weapons? (FindLaw's California Case Law)
- California Legal Research (FindLaw's Cases & Codes)