Court of Appeal Decision in
Yumori-Kaku et al. v. City of Santa Clara
The City of Santa Clara’s method of electing city council members at-large in which each council member is elected by all City voters violated the California Voting Rights Act, a California appellate court held late last year. The Sixth District Court of Appeal held that the remedy requiring the City to transition to district-based city council elections did not violate the Equal Protection Clause. It determined that the CVRA continues to apply to charter cities and does not impinge on their plenary authority to control the manner of electing their officers. Lastly, the court affirmed the trial court’s award of more than $3 million in attorneys’ fees and costs to the plaintiffs and also granted plaintiffs costs on appeal.
Year in Review Part 3: July
Dec. 29, 2020 at 6:00 am
A court of appeals issued a ruling that reversed a previous order forcing Santa Monica to change the format of its city council elections. Plaintiffs in the CVRA case filed an appeal with the California Supreme Court for a final ruling.
A man was arrested in connection with the arson of Sake House restaurant during the looting on May 31. He was charged with one count of arson, a felony offense that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years.
Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered bars and indoor dining at restaurants to close in most areas of the state for three weeks amid a surge of new coronavirus cases. The revised stay-at-home order affected 19 counties where nearly three-quarters of the state’s roughly 40 million people live including Los Angeles County.