California Supreme Court Rulings

In a defeat for unwed fathers, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday that a man who fathers a child with a woman who is married to someone else may be denied all legal parental rights. A man who "fathers a child with a woman married to another man takes the risk that the child will be raised within that marriage and that he will be excluded from participation in the child's life," Justice Joyce L. Kennard wrote.

The state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that defendants who lose in small claims courts have no right to a jury trial when they appeal to higher courts. The court unanimously found that while losing small claims defendants have a right to a new trial before a Superior Court judge, they have no right to demand that a jury review their claims. The justices noted that the small claims system, set up by the Legislature in 1921, is supposed to be informal and should resolve problems quickly.

The heirs of an uninsured driver killed in a crash can sue for damages beyond the limits placed by California voters on lawsuits by the uninsured drivers themselves, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday. It was the second ruling in a week to limit the scope of Proposition 213, an insurer-backed 1996 initiative that barred uninsured drivers from recovering damages for "noneconomic" harm such as pain and suffering. The measure allowed them to sue only for economic damages such as wage losses.

In a landmark ruling, the California Supreme Court held Monday that a person can be convicted of murder for causing the death of a fetus that could have been legally aborted. The 6-to-1 decision will allow prosecutors to charge a defendant with murder for causing a pregnant woman to miscarry, even if her fetus had been only seven to eight weeks old and incapable of surviving outside her womb.

The California Supreme Court held Tuesday that a jury has wide-ranging discretion to consider various factors in determining whether a convicted killer should be sentenced to death or life without parole. The court issued its ruling in a case the U.S. Supreme Court had ordered it to re-examine as part of California's death penalty law. Specifically, the high court wanted the state justices to determine whether the California death law is too vague. On Monday, the U.S.

The state Supreme Court on Thursday refused to allow defendants to evade a charge of murder on grounds they were drunk or mentally impaired when the killing occurred. The court unanimously rejected what prosecutors called an attempt to resurrect the controversial "diminished capacity" defense. The legal defense had been abolished by the Legislature and the voters under Proposition 8, a 1982 anti-crime initiative.

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that police can search a house for evidence even if they list the wrong address on a search warrant, a decision blasted by defense attorneys. The court overturned an appeals court decision that threw out evidence Brea police gathered in 1997 with a warrant full of errors--including the wrong address.

The California Supreme Court on Monday upheld a sweeping Santa Ana homeless ordinance, ruling that cities may prosecute people for using a sleeping bag or blanket on public property. On a 6-1 vote, the court held that Santa Ana's 1992 law, one of the toughest in the nation, does not violate the constitutional rights of the homeless. The ruling overturns a lower court decision that the law posed cruel and unusual punishment.

Even when a person denies that domestic violence has occurred in his or her home, police can enter and investigate if they reasonably suspect a problem, according to a ruling left intact by the state Supreme Court. A Newport Beach woman whose drug conviction resulted from a police search in response to a report of a man shoving a woman around was denied review of an appeal in a unanimous court decision Thursday.

The California Supreme Court gave prosecutors a victory Thursday, ruling that serious felonies committed by a juvenile, even when dealt with by a Juvenile Court, can count as prior strikes under the state's three-strikes law. Legal experts said the ruling settles the issue of what a judge may consider in deciding whether a convicted adult felon is subject to the 25-year-to-life sentence mandated by the three-strikes law for repeat felons.