I won’t be blogging on Friday, so this forthcoming-filing post is an educated guess, not confirmed official information. The basis for the guess is that Monday is the last regular-opinion-filing day within the 90-day period for the opinion in Needham v. Superior Court.
I won’t be blogging on Monday either, so a summary of the Needham opinion, assuming it files on that day, won’t appear until Tuesday.
If, as expected, the Needham opinion is filing on Monday, and if the court will not on that day file opinions earlier than expected in cases argued on the early-May, late-May, or June calendars, this will be accurate:
On Monday morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinion in Needham v. Superior Court. (Briefs here; oral argument video here.)
In Needham, the court will address whether the Sexually Violent Predator Act (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6600 et seq.) allows the People to retain a private expert to testify at trial as to whether a defendant is a sexually violent predator, or whether the expert witnesses are limited to those designated by the State Department of State Hospitals (Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 6601 & 6603). The court granted review in October 2022. More about the case here.
This will be the last of six opinions for cases argued in April. Additional argued but undecided cases are eight of the nine cases on the early-May calendar (opinions expected by August 5; one opinion filed last week), the nine on the late-May calendar (opinions expected by August 19, except for the opinion in Castellanos v. State of California, which, because of post-argument briefing, isn’t expected until August 29), and the seven on the June calendar (opinions expected by August 29).
The Needham opinion can be viewed Monday starting at 10:00 a.m.
