Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinion in the consolidated cases of City of Gilroy v. Superior Court and Law Foundation of Silicon Valley v. Superior Court. (Briefs here; oral argument video here.)
The issues in the Gilroy and Law Foundation cases are: (1) May an organization obtain declaratory relief under the Public Records Act (Gov. Code, § 7920.000 et seq.) based on a public entity’s failure to preserve records while the organization’s requests for those records were pending? (2) Is it a violation of the Public Records Act for a public entity to fail to preserve records it determined were exempt from disclosure before a court has had an opportunity to conduct a review? The court granted review in February 2024. More about the cases here. Second District, Division Eight, Presiding Justice Maria E. Stratton is sitting on the case, temporarily filling the vacancy created by Justice Martin Jenkins’s October retirement.
This will be the first of three opinions filing in cases argued in November. The other two cases should be decided by February 2.
There are eight other argued but undecided cases in the pipeline: the two argued in December (one of them should file by March 2; see below regarding the other one); the two on the January calendar (one expected by April 6; see below regarding the other one); and six opinions delayed by post-argument briefing. Five of the six delayed opinions will be in death penalty appeals (see here and here) — the opinions in People v. Bankston, argued in early May, People v. Chhuon and Pan, argued in late May, and People v. Barrera, argued in June, might not file until February 26, the People v. Demolle opinion, following an October argument, might not file until April 23, and the opinion in People v. Bertsch and Hronis, which, while argued in January (see here), might not be decided until April 30. There is also Shear Development Co. v. California Coastal Commission, argued last month, but with the opinion delayed until as late as May 4 because of supplemental briefing (see here),
The Gilroy/Law Foundation opinion can be viewed tomorrow starting at 10:00 a.m.
