Chris Micheli

Recent Legal Challenges to California Statutes  By Chris Micheli             2025 has been an interesting year for legal challenges against statutes enacted by the California Legislature. While the following list is not exhaustive, this is a good sampling of pending or completed litigation to be aware of: ·        The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted a partial injunction blocking enforcement of the climate-related financial risk disclosure law, SB 261. ·        The U.S. Department of Justice has sued over the state voters’ enactment of Prop. 50 at the November special election. ·        The U.S. Department of Justice has sued over the enactment of the anti-masking bill, SB 627. ·        The California Court of Appeal for the Fifth District upheld a 2023 statute on card-check unioni...

Why California Should Publish Its Bill Drafting Manual  By Chris Micheli             According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), about half of the states publish the manual used by their state’s legislative drafting attorneys. California and its Office of Legislative Counsel (OLC) is one of those states that does not. Why do I think our state should publish its bill drafting manual? I believe it would enhance the ability of the state’s judiciary to better interpret statutes. When first reviewing a statute, judges and justices rely upon the plain meaning of the words in the statute. However, when that statute is ambiguous, then our state courts will try to ascertain the intent of the Legislature. And, in my mind, one helpful document to assist the judicial branch in interpreting the statute could be the drafting manual used by the attorneys in the OLC. Why? This manual sets forth the rules that the C...

2025 Letters to the Daily Journals – Senate Bills  By Chris Micheli             With the conclusion of the 2025 California Legislative Session, and the printing of all the Daily Journals for both houses, I have compiled a chart below of legislators’ letters to the Daily Journals in the Senate: Senate Bills         SBx1 – 2 Wiener February 3 45 Budget Act of 2024 SB 19 Rubio Sept. 11 2867 Crimes: threats SB 24 McNerney Sept. 12 2983 Public utilities: review of accounts: electrical and gas corporations: rates: political influence activities SB 53 Wiener Sept. 12 3041 Artificial intelligence models: large developers SB 63 Wiener Sept...

Disapproval v. Withdrawal of Regulations  By Chris Micheli What is a disapproval of a regulation? What is the withdrawal of a regulation? What roles do these two procedures play in the California rulemaking process? The Office of Administrative Law (OAL) can either approve a rulemaking package or they can disapprove it. OAL is required to use six statutory standards of review found in the California Administrative Procedure Act (APA), which is contained in the state's Government Code. If one of California’s over 200 rulemaking entities does not comply with one or more of those six standards, then OAL notifies the rulemaking entity that it is facing a disapproval (i.e., a rejection of the submitted rulemaking). At that time, the rulemaking entity (an agency, department, board, commission, or bureau) may choose to accept the disapproval and make required changes, or withdraw the proposed rulemaking from OAL to fix it. The withdrawal gives the rulemaking entity an opportu...

Insights on Legislative and Regulatory Processes and Lobbying  By Chris Micheli I have often discussed the legislative and regulatory processes, as well as lobbying in both arenas, and have mentioned that I think there are a number of similarities (and differences, of course) between the processes and lobbying in these two areas. What do I mean? Let’s take a look at a few: First, in terms of lobbying at its most basic level, there are both similarities and differences between regulatory and legislative lobbying. But my view of the two is: ·        Legislative lobbying is advocating for or against a bill in the legislative branch. ·        Regulatory lobbying is advocating for or against a regulation in the executive branch. Yes, the processes and players are different, but the general concepts are the same. Second, there are some interesting parallels between the two processes from my perspective. What are some...

Introduction to Statutory Interpretation in California  By Chris Micheli             What is statutory interpretation or statutory construction? They are essentially the same thing. Both terms refer to how the judicial branch (i.e., the courts of this state) interprets statutes, which are enacted by bills (through the legislative process) or by statutory initiatives (through the adoption of ballot initiatives by the state’s voters). These same principles of statutory construction or interpretation are used for laws enacted by the People or by the Legislature.             Why is it important to have a basic understanding of how laws are interpreted by the courts in California? Understanding how the courts interpret statutes (and regulations and constitutional amendments) is important to anyone who works with these bodies of law. Costly and time-consuming litigation can o...