First District holds that an Oakland voter initiative funding the Oakland Zoo violated the California Constitution by naming a private operator, but the offending references can be severed and the measure passed with the required simple majority.
First District affirms juvenile court jurisdiction but reverses removal of an infant from a mother with serious mental illness because the agency did not show reasonable efforts to prevent removal.
First District affirms UC Berkeley’s expulsion of a student in a non-Title IX sexual misconduct case, holding that any limit on direct cross-examination at the campus hearing was harmless given the prior criminal preliminary hearing.
First District affirms a murder conviction but reverses a drive-by shooting conviction because the trial court failed to instruct the jury on grossly negligent discharge of a firearm as a lesser included offense.
First District holds that an arbitrator’s merits-based finding that an employee did not suffer Labor Code violations preclusively destroys the same employee’s PAGA standing in the companion court action.
First District holds the First Amendment ministerial exception does not categorically bar a Zen Center worker’s wage-and-hour claims, but Labor Code section 98.2’s appeal bond is required only of the employing entity, not individuals also liable under section 558.1.