⚖️ Cal. Supreme Court: Shear Dev. v. Coastal Comm. published (S284378) — Apr. 23 📜 Capital appeal: P. v. Bertsch & Hronis (S093944) filed Apr. 20 🏛️ AG Bonta: suit over federal soot (PM2.5) implementation — Apr. 24 🗳️ AG Bonta: motion to block mail-voting executive order — Apr. 24 🌊 Governor: Delta Conveyance permitting milestone — Apr. 24 📋 CalPrivacy: employee-data preliminary comments open — Apr. 20 🏠 First Dist.: Citizens Against Marketplace Dev. v. San Ramon (A170988) 🚀 Second Dist.: Stoker v. Blue Origin published (B344945) 🏛️ CEQA: AG sues Poway over ancestral remains at Hidden Valley Ranch ⚖️ Cal. Supreme Court: Shear Dev. v. Coastal Comm. published (S284378) — Apr. 23 📜 Capital appeal: P. v. Bertsch & Hronis (S093944) filed Apr. 20 🏛️ AG Bonta: suit over federal soot (PM2.5) implementation — Apr. 24 🗳️ AG Bonta: motion to block mail-voting executive order — Apr. 24 🌊 Governor: Delta Conveyance permitting milestone — Apr. 24 📋 CalPrivacy: employee-data preliminary comments open — Apr. 20 🏠 First Dist.: Citizens Against Marketplace Dev. v. San Ramon (A170988) 🚀 Second Dist.: Stoker v. Blue Origin published (B344945) 🏛️ CEQA: AG sues Poway over ancestral remains at Hidden Valley Ranch
California Supreme Court · Coastal jurisdiction · Sunday Edition
No. S284378 · slip opinion filed Wednesday, April 23, 2026

Coastal
Record.

The Judicial Branch posted a new published Supreme Court decision in Shear Development Co. v. California Coastal Commission — the week’s signature state high-court filing in the long-running intersection of shoreline development, coastal commission findings, and appellate review standards.

Shear Development Co. v. California Coastal Commission, No. S284378 (Cal. Apr. 23, 2026) — Judicial Branch slip opinion
Water infrastructure · State Water Project · April 24, 2026

Delta Conveyance Project Clears a Permitting Milestone

The Governor’s office announced forward progress on the Delta Conveyance Project — the tunnel-and-facilities package the administration treats as central to modernizing water deliveries through the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta while environmental review and permitting channels remain active in multiple forums.

Newsroom copy frames the milestone as bringing the project closer to construction after years of environmental impact reporting, agency hearings, and litigation risk that water districts track alongside seasonal runoff forecasts.

Practitioner note Watch Department of Water Resources bulletins and State Water Resources Control Board dockets for the next formal comment windows; CEQA challenges often proceed on parallel tracks with federal Clean Water Act Section 404 reviews.
Office of the Governor — Delta Conveyance milestone release, April 24, 2026
Automatic capital appeal · Filed April 20, 2026

Posture Order in People v. Bertsch and Hronis

The Supreme Court released its published disposition in case number S093944 — part of the court’s capital docket where automatic appeals receive plenary review. Defense and prosecution bars parse these opinions for guilt-phase, penalty-phase, and habeas-related holdings.

Supreme Court of California
People v. Bertsch and Hronis — No. S093944

Slip opinions marked “published” enter the Official Reports channel and may be cited once finalized; capital appeals remain a distinct procedural lane from ordinary felony appeals.

People v. Bertsch and Hronis, No. S093944 (Cal. Apr. 20, 2026) — Judicial Branch of California
CEQA · Tribal cultural resources · April 21, 2026

Attorney General Sues Poway Over Ancestral Remains Discovery

The Department of Justice filed a complaint alleging California Environmental Quality Act violations and related failures after human ancestral remains and tribal cultural resources were reportedly disturbed during grading — teeing up state enforcement alongside local land-use processes.

“Project development, environmental compliance, and appropriate community consultation should go hand-in-hand. The discovery of an apparent burial site that served as a final resting place for some of California’s first inhabitants warrants appropriate caution and respect,” Attorney General Bonta said in the office’s April 21 release.

Office of the Attorney General — CEQA petition and complaint docketed that date

Attorney General Bonta Files Lawsuit Against City of Poway over CEQA Violations — oag.ca.gov
Court of Appeal · Second District, Division Three · April 24, 2026

Stoker v. Blue Origin — Published in Los Angeles

The Judicial Branch listed a new published opinion in case B344945, adding to the week’s civil docket from the state’s largest intermediate appellate district — a datapoint for aerospace-adjacent employment and contract practitioners tracking Second District precedent.

Docket
B344945
District
CA2/3
Filed
Apr. 24
Status
Published
Stoker v. Blue Origin, LLC, et al., No. B344945 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 24, 2026) — Judicial Branch of California
Writ practice · Second District, Division Seven · April 23, 2026

Original Review Petition in Jessica M. v. CDCR

The Court of Appeal published an opinion in B343930 — a case caption naming the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation — illustrating how extraordinary writ practice intersects with inmate medical and classification disputes.

Tribunal
Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Seven
Case number
No. B343930
Party of record
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Publication
April 23, 2026 (slip filing date)
Jessica M. v. California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, No. B343930 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 23, 2026) — Judicial Branch of California
Housing litigation · First District, Division Five · April 24, 2026

First District Weighs Citizens Against Marketplace Dev. v. San Ramon

Contra Costa County’s corridor cities remain a proving ground for builder’s-remedy and density-bonus disputes; the Judicial Branch posted a new published opinion from Division Five in case A170988 as part of Thursday’s statewide opinion drop.

Tri-Valley corridor

San Ramon approvals

Published First District opinions in marketplace-housing challenges influence how cities document consistency with housing-element law.

Statewide citation

Division Five channel

Once published, the opinion joins the citable body of law searchable through the Judicial Branch slip-opinion index.

Citizens Against Marketplace Apt./Condo Dev. v. City of San Ramon, No. A170988 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 24, 2026) — Judicial Branch of California
Fourth District, Division One · April 24, 2026

Writ Review in Amezcua v. Superior Court

San Diego’s Division One published opinion D087216 adds to the week’s cluster of original-jurisdiction and mandamus decisions that trial judges cite when managing pretrial and post-conviction collateral channels.

San Diego appellate writs often carry immediate operational consequences for trial departments — practitioners pull the slip PDF the same morning it posts.

Amezcua v. Superior Court, No. D087216 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 24, 2026) — Judicial Branch of California
Criminal law · First District, Division Three · April 24, 2026

Published Authority in People v. Emrick

Case A172010 continues the Bay Area criminal division’s April output — another published slip that defense and prosecution teams will fold into sentencing and post-conviction research memos.

Penal Code channel (illustrative): Charging, trial, and appellate issues often turn on discrete statutory subdivisions.
Slip opinions without publication orders may not be cited. Here, the Judicial Branch lists A172010 as a published opinion filed April 24, 2026 — confer the PDF for dispositive holdings.
People v. Emrick, No. A172010 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 24, 2026) — Judicial Branch of California
Fifth District · April 21, 2026

Central Valley Appeal in Martinez v. Sierra Lifestar

Fresno’s Fifth District published F089576 mid-week — part of the agricultural interior’s steady flow of health-care and insurance-adjacent opinions that feed statewide treatises.

Monday, Apr. 21

Judicial Branch timestamp lists the opinion as filed; Valley practitioners sync calendar reminders to Fifth District posting patterns.

Same week

Parallel Sixth District Silicon Valley opinions (below) complete a north-south cross-section of April appellate output.

Martinez v. Sierra Lifestar, No. F089576 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 21, 2026) — Judicial Branch of California
Sixth District · April 21, 2026

South Bay Criminal Publication in People v. Landrine

Santa Clara’s Sixth District added H052071 to the week’s published column — closing the geographic loop from San Diego to San Jose in a single opinion calendar.

Thursday’s statewide slip list clustered First, Second, and Fourth District releases touching housing, aerospace-adjacent civil disputes, and criminal post-conviction channels.

Silicon Valley panels still publish at volumes that feed statewide research tools; pairing Sixth District criminal updates with same-week Fourth District writ practice helps trial departments allocate appellate-risk budgets.

Fifth District opinions from Fresno often track insurance, transport, and ag-labor themes; comparing evidentiary treatments across the Fifth and Sixth districts remains a standard appellate strategy memo step.

Together, the April 21 pair (Martinez and Landrine) illustrates how inland and Bay Area panels publish on the same calendar day even when subject matter diverges sharply.

People v. Landrine, No. H052071 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 21, 2026) — Judicial Branch of California
Environmental enforcement · April 24, 2026

State Seeks Federal Soot-Standard Implementation

The Attorney General announced litigation asking federal courts to address implementation of fine particulate (PM2.5) National Ambient Air Quality Standards — a federalism frame that intersects with California’s air-quality management districts and CARB-led attainment planning.

Release date April 24, 2026
Subject matter PM2.5 NAAQS implementation
Agency channel California Department of Justice
Attorney General Bonta Sues Trump Administration Over Failure to Implement Life-Saving Soot Standard — oag.ca.gov
CPPA preliminary rulemaking · Spring 2026

Parallel Comment Windows on Employee Data and Notices

CalPrivacy opened overlapping preliminary comment periods on employee-data processing and consumer notices — distinct from the data-broker audit track that began earlier in April.

April 20 – May 20, 2026 · 5:00 p.m. PT

Employee data

The agency invites stakeholder input before deciding whether regulatory amendments are needed for in-scope workforce information practices.

April 20 – May 20, 2026 · 5:00 p.m. PT

Notices & disclosures

A parallel track examines transparency obligations — compliance teams often coordinate comments across both portals.

California Privacy Protection Agency — Employee data preliminary comments California Privacy Protection Agency — Notices & disclosures preliminary comments
Elections litigation · April 24, 2026

Attorney General Seeks Permanent Block of Mail-Voting Executive Order

Building on earlier coalition briefing, the Department of Justice announced a motion for permanent relief against a presidential executive order addressing mail voting — preserving California’s position that voter-list administration remains primarily a state legislative function.

Federal litigation moves on a briefing cadence independent of the Legislature; the press release signals an intent to secure durable injunctive language.

ComplaintPreliminary reliefPermanent motionAppellate review
Attorney General Bonta Moves to Permanently Block President Trump’s Executive Order Restricting Mail Voting — oag.ca.gov
The Week Ahead · April 27 – May 4, 2026

On the California Legal Calendar

April 27

Supreme Court Monday orders

New civil and criminal opinions and orders traditionally post after 10:00 a.m.; watch the Judicial Branch newsroom after busy April calendars.

April 28

Workers’ Memorial Day

Governor Newsom issued a proclamation declaring April 28, 2026, as Workers’ Memorial Day — Cal/OSHA and DIR typically publish companion safety reminders.

April 29

Senate policy committees

Spring session hearings continue; verify agendas on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov for bills touching utilities, housing, and public safety grants.

April 30

Appellate mid-week drop

Published opinions often cluster mid-week across districts — employment, insurance, and tort panels remain high-volume.

May 1

May Day labor enforcement

DLSE field operations and wage-theft settlements sometimes batch announcements around seasonal labor peaks; monitor DIR news feeds.

May 2 – 4

CPPA preliminary comments

Employee-data and notices comment windows remain open through May 20; data-broker audit comments continue through May 7.

Judicial Branch of California — Published / citable opinions index
What is Legally Brief?