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Appeals State and Local Government California

Mintz - Energy & Sustainability Viewpoints

Sustainable Energy & Infrastructure Litigation Updates — August 2025

There was a noteworthy development in the ongoing legal challenge to the SEC’s mandatory climate disclosure law (dating from the Biden administration), which is currently pending in the Eighth Circuit. Following the decision...more

Best Best & Krieger LLP

The Price of Water Just Got More Complicated: San Diego’s Legal Battle Over Tiered Rates

On July 30, 2025, a divided California Court of Appeal issued its long-awaited opinion in Patz v. City of San Diego, affirming the trial court’s judgment that the City’s tiered residential water rates violated Proposition 218...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

Ninth Circuit Upholds FERC’s Denial of RTO Incentive Adder for California Utilities Due to Mandatory CAISO Participation

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On July 11, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (“Ninth Circuit”) issued an opinion in Pacific Gas & Electric Company v. FERC, addressing a challenge by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (“PG&E”), Southern...more

Miller Starr Regalia

Third District Holds County Could Require Supplemental Environmental Information From Grading Permit Applicant As Condition of...

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Like a gift to land use lawyers that never stops giving, the strange and wondrous interrelationship between CEQA and the Permit Streamlining Act (“PSA”; Gov. Code, § 65920 et seq) continues to inspire litigation and require...more

Perkins Coie

VMT Thresholds Must Be Based on Substantial Evidence Specific to Local Conditions

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The County of San Diego’s thresholds for exempting certain projects from vehicle miles traveled (VMT) analysis were not supported by substantial evidence showing they were appropriate specifically for the County. Cleveland...more

Alston & Bird

Land Use Matters | May 2025 | CEQA Appellate Decisions & Other Legal Developments

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City of Los Angeles - Expedited and Streamlined Review Process for Community Rebuilding - On March 18, 2025, Mayor Karen Bass issued Revised Emergency Executive Order No. 1 (EO 1) directing the Department of City Planning,...more

Nossaman LLP

Inverse Condemnation Liability Does Not Extend to Failure to Prevent Actions of Another Party

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Can a public entity be held liable for inverse condemnation when it fails to prevent another party from causing damage to private property?  This one is pretty simple:  the answer is no....more

Downey Brand LLP

Are Your CEQA Thresholds Supported by Substantial Evidence? Fourth District Rules San Diego County’s Thresholds of Significance...

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In Cleveland National Forest Foundation v. County of San Diego (2025) 109 Cal. App.5th 1257, the Fourth District Court of Appeal invalidated two thresholds of significance adopted by the County of San Diego (“County”) that in...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

“ToMAYto, ToMAHto”: District Court Holds That Differences in State Law Determine Whether Unpaid Annual Pension Contributions...

On March 21, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California affirmed a bankruptcy court’s dismissal of the San Benito Healthcare District’s chapter 9 bankruptcy petition on the grounds that the...more

Allen Matkins

California Court Clarifies CEQA Tribal Consultation Duties in First Published AB 52 Decision

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On March 14, 2025, the California Court of Appeal for the First District issued the first published opinion interpreting Assembly Bill 52 (AB 52), the law governing tribal consultation procedures under the California...more

Meyers Nave

Court of Appeal Invalidates County's Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Screening Thresholds for CEQA Review

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A California court of appeal has held that a lead agency conducting environmental review, under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), of “vehicle miles traveled” (VMT) impacts may not unquestioningly use thresholds...more

Miller Starr Regalia

Fourth District Invalidates San Diego County’s “Infill” And “Small Project” VMT Screening Thresholds As Lacking Substantial...

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In a published opinion filed March 27, 2025, the Fourth District Court of Appeal (Div. 1) reversed the trial court’s judgment denying a writ petition, and held that two screening thresholds of significance for vehicle miles...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Cultivator Not Entitled to Use Easement for Cannabis Purposes Absent Landowner Consent

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On October 29, 2024, the Second District Court of Appeals of California decided against the County of Santa Barbara (“the county”) in JCCRandall LLC v. County of Santa Barbara. The Court held, contrary to popular belief, that...more

Perkins Coie

California Court of Appeal Casts Doubt on Legality of Municipality’s Voter ID Law

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Earlier this month, a California appellate court issued an order in People v. Huntington Beach indicating that California’s intermediate appellate court will hold that there is a limit on the power of localities to manage...more

Alston & Bird

Land Use Matters February 2025 | CEQA Appellate Decisions & Other Legal Developments

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Los Angeles County - Executive Order Streamlines Path to Rebuild Homes, Businesses, and Communities Destroyed by Los Angeles Firestorms - In response to the multiple firestorms in Los Angeles County that started on January 7,...more

Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP

Recent CIPA decisions suggest website privacy class actions will continue

Companies should brace for another surge in California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) claims after two federal court decisions may encourage plaintiffs to file even more claims relating to website analytics tools. No industry...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

California Supreme Court Decision Limits Manageability Dismissals for PAGA Claims

For companies doing business in California, it’s important to be aware of the January 18, 2024 California Supreme Court decision in Estrada v. Royalty Carpet Mills, Inc.*, which examined whether trial courts can strike PAGA...more

Fenwick & West LLP

New California Law Limits Stays of Proceedings…

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On October 10, 2023, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed CA Senate Bill 365 (SB 365), set to go into effect in 2024. This bill gives state court judges the discretion to move forward with litigation in trial court while an...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

California Court Holds Proposed Ballot Measure Excluding Community Plan Area from Height Limit Is Not a “Later Activity” For...

In late June, California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld a Superior Court decision in Save Our Access v. City of San Diego, providing clarity for determining when a “later activity” is beyond the scope of an existing...more

Harris Beach Murtha PLLC

California Holds Employers Have No Duty to Protect Employees’ Households from COVID-19

The California Supreme Court has answered in the negative the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ certified question regarding “take-home” COVID-19 exposure (see Federal Appeals Court Asks California If Covid-19 “Take Home” Suits...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

California Court of Appeal Clarifies Employer’s Obligation to Reimburse Expenses Depends on Whether They Were a Direct Consequence...

On July 11, 2023, the California Court of Appeal in Thai v. IBM held that whether an employer is obligated to reimburse expenses incurred by an employee working from home turns on whether the expenses were a direct...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

California Supreme Court Lets It Stand That CDTFA Can Decide Who Is and Is Not a Retailer

On April 26, 2023, the Supreme Court of California declined to review the Second District Court of Appeal’s decision in Grosz v. California Dep’t of Tax & Fee Admin. In the underlying case, Stanley Grosz, a business owner...more

Perkins Coie

Athletic Field Lighting Project Not Categorically Exempt from CEQA

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The First District Court of Appeal overturned the City of San Francisco’s decision that Saint Ignatius High School’s project to install four permanent 90-foot-tall athletic field lights was exempt from CEQA.  Saint Ignatius...more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

Oakland Athletics Strike Out: California Appellate Court Rejects Team's Petition Seeking Regulation of Metal-Shredding Operation...

The California Court of Appeal (First District – Division 3) (“Court of Appeal”) in a September 30th Opinion addressed The Oakland Athletics’ (The Athletics Investment Group, LLC) (“Athletics”) argument that the California...more

Perkins Coie

Single Home Not Subject to the Housing Accountability Act

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The court of appeal held that the Housing Accountability Act (HAA) does not apply to a one-unit single-family home project. Reznitskiy v. County of Marin, 79 Cal.App.5th 1016 (2022). ...more

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