Legal Updates & Publications

Under the California Constitution, counties and cities have broad authority to regulate planning and zoning.[1] However, as a recent California Court of Appeal case makes clear, such authority is not unlimited. In Neighbors in Support of Appropriate Land Use v. County of Tuolumne, the appellate.

On November 28, 2007, the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District held that because possession of marijuana for medical purposes is legal under California’s Compassionate Use Act,[1] state courts are not pre-empted by federal law from allowing the return of medical marijuana.

On Monday, the California Supreme Court broadened the permissible use of information gleaned from a police officer’s personnel file by defense attorneys after Pitchess motion proceedings.[1] In Chambers v. Appellate Division of the Superior Court of San Diego County,[2] the court ruled unanimously that “derivative.

Last week, the California Court of Appeal issued an opinion upholding California’s sex offender registration system, ruling that the requirement to register as a sex offender does not constitute criminal punishment, but is rather a public safety measure intended to protect families and children. The.

Under the First Amendment Due Process clause, local government regulations and ordinances must give adequate notice with reasonable specificity. A regulation violates the due process of law if its “terms [are] so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and.