After hearing argument the California Supreme Court has ordered additional briefing in a case that could reshape the contours of the state's Private Attorneys General Act. Attorneys involved in the case, Michael Rubin (Altshuler Berzon) and Robert Olson (Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland) offer competing viewpoints.

Several state law enforcement agencies would like to inform prosecutors if officers have misconduct on their records, so prosecutors can seek and give to defendants any potential exculpatory evidence, as required by 'Brady v. Maryland.' But California's 'Pitchess' laws say officer personnel files can only be opened in response to court orders. This week's guests offered arguments Wednesday before the state high court on how to resolve this seeming puzzle. Geoffrey Sheldon (Liebert Cassidy Whitmore) argued on behalf of the information-sharing policy; Judy Posner (Benedon & Serlin) and Elizabeth Gibbons (The Gibbons Firm) represented a union of sheriff's deputies, and argued against it.

Business-owner plaintiffs suffering 'purely economic losses' from the 2015 SoCalGas leak were barred Thursday from recovering their claimed damages. The California Supreme Court, with palpable reluctance, endorsed a strict rule generally denying tort recovery to plaintiffs whose money damages aren't tied to personal injury or property harms. Amicus supporting SoCalGas, Yen-Shyang Tseng (Horvitz & Levy), and the plaintiffs' attorney Leslie Brueckner (Public Justice) offer competing views

Challengers claiming Los Angeles City Council District 10 was racially gerrymandered have asked SCOTUS to step in. On the show are petitioners' counsel Rex Heinke (Akin Gump), and two attorneys opposing review on behalf of Los Angeles, Robin Johansen (Remcho Johansen & Purcell), and Harit Trivedi (LA City Attorney's Office)

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Sally Q. Yates, former U.S. Deputy Attorney General and Acting Attorney General, and now partner with King & Spalding, joins the show, along with Commissioner Eileen Decker (Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners) and Justice Helen Bendix (2DCA/1), all panelists of this year's California Lawyer Women Leadership in Law conference. They share experiences and insights on the trailblazing paths they've struck, and the course ahead for gender equity at law's highest levels.

Nationwide injunction critics say the remedy prevents lower court percolation; the 9th Circuit will test that thesis after ordering briefing on whether an injunction from Pennsylvania moots the local appeal. Scholars Howard Wasserman (FIU Law) and Alan Trammell (Univ. Arkansas Law) offer competing views.

Can shareholders sue over tender offer misrepresentations and omissions? And is negligence the standard to meet? SCOTUS this week left both questions unresolved, and an unbalanced circuit split intact. Securities experts Matthew Close and Brittany Rogers (O'Melveny & Myers) discuss the implications. And Ron Holland (McDermott Will & Emery) explains the high court's latest 9th Circuit reversal and FAA vindication.

Co-authors of the new book 'The Company They Keep: How Partisan Divisions Came to the Supreme Court,' Lawrence Baum (Ohio State) and Neal Devins (William & Mary SOL), discuss their research on an historically polarized high court, and how divided elite communities drove the Court's partisan schism. Plus, Dr. Adam Feldman (Empirical SCOTUS) queries whether a rightward-shifting Court has driven its chief somewhat leftward.

In one of three bitterly-fought denials for rehearing en banc, the 9th Circuit let stand a ruling protecting homeless individuals from prosecution for sleeping in public spaces, when no shelter is available. But six dissenters called the decision 'badly misguided,' and another order 'absurd.' Professor Arthur Hellman visits first to discuss the use of 'dissentals' in this context, which one judge says is a lamentable 9th Circuit innovation that creates 'distorted presentations' of cases. Then, Public Counsel's Mark Rosenbaum discusses the legal and policy points of the public sleeping ruling, and its impact on LA's approach to its homelessness crisis.

As the Supreme Court seems vexed once again by partisan gerrymandering challenges, we’re joined by Benjamin Fliegel and Brian Sutherland (Reed Smith LLP), who represented amicus California Citizens Redistricting Commission in last year’s gerrymandering challenge 'Gill v. Whitford.' They explain why courts should enter this political fray, and how California’s independent, nonpartisan redistricting body sets an example for SCOTUS and for other states.