CJP Dec. 1 hearing

Today's DJ has Hearing set for retired justice accused of delaying 100s of cases -- A Commission on Judicial Performance hearing begins Dec. 1 in Sacramento for retired 3rd District Court of Appeal Justice William J. Murray Jr., accused of willful misconduct for long delays in issuing decisions over a decade.

• The commission said in a notice in June that over a 10-year period, 355 cases were delayed one to nine years after being fully briefed or assigned to Murray.
• The hearing at the Sacramento County Superior Court will be conducted by special masters Justice Maurice Sanchez of the 4th District Court of Appeal, Division 3; retired Los Angeles County judge Anthony J. Mohr and retired Orange County judge B. Tam Nomoto Schumann.

The DJ also has Former Justice Cuéllar reflects on court tenure, diplomacy, and 'Kabuki' confirmations --Speaking before his former colleagues, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar said the skills of judging and diplomacy share an "unmistakable crossover" and criticized federal confirmation hearings as overly performative.

Law360 has Joshua Sohn's Why Appellees Should Write Their Answering Brief First

• The most important reason for writing your answering brief first is that your opponent's opening brief will structure the facts and legal arguments in a way that most benefits their side. If you read their brief before drafting your own, it's easy to subconsciously adopt their structure and find yourself playing defense against each of their points.
• By contrast, if you draft your answering brief first, you can present the facts and law in a way that most benefits your side, without being distracted by the appellant's presentation of the case.
• Give it a try: You'll be pleasantly surprised by how well it works, and how little you end up having to change your draft answering brief after you see what the appellant actually filed.
• writing your answering brief first means crafting a brief that makes an affirmative, stand-alone case for why the judgment below was correct and should be affirmed. Once you have that affirmative structure and text in place, you can think about what arguments the appellant is likely to make, and you can write in rebuttals to those arguments, generally placing the rebuttals after each of your affirmative points.
• there are other benefits to writing your answering brief first. One benefit involves timing — when you write your answering brief first, you can begin working on it as soon as the appeal commences.

Bloomberg Law has Trump Changes How Judicial Nominees Get Publicly Revealed

The Trump administration has narrowed the window between when judicial nominees get publicly announced and when they appear at their confirmation hearings, cutting short the time outside groups have to vet these lifetime appointments.
As little as two days has elapsed between announcement and Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for some of President Donald Trump’s nominees this year, compared to the typical 28 days that elapsed in prior administrations.

The CA Judicial Council has posted the 2026 California Courts Calendar -- Keep track of court holidays, council meetings, and Supreme Court oral argument dates by downloading the 2026 Calendar.