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The California Supreme Court's newest justice, Goodwin Liu, hits the ground running this morning with a high-profile issue: Proposition 8. The high court is hearing oral arguments in San Francisco on whether state law gives sponsors of the same-sex marriage ban the right to defend it in a case now pending before a federal appellate court. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco struck down the voter-approved measure last year as unconstitutional. State officials, including Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris, have declined to appeal. Another federal judge has since rejected the proponents' argument that Walker's decision...

New Attorney General Kamala Harris took office Monday with a rapid-fire barrage of promises to target everything from violent gangs to online scams to truancy and prison recidivism rates. Minutes after her swearing-in, Harris sent a message that she plans to be an activist as California's top cop, an innovator with a motto identical to the title of her book: "Smart On Crime." "Ultimately, being smart on crime is about doing more preventing and less reacting, it's about being tough and being tough-minded, doing more of what works and less of what doesn't," she said. Harris, who narrowly defeated Los...

Attorney General Kamala Harris enlisted California in the legal battle over health care Friday, joining eight other states in a court filing defending the new law's requirement that everyone obtain medical insurance. The nine states, all with Democratic attorneys general, filed arguments with a federal appeals court in Cincinnati supporting the constitutionality of the law that's supposed to provide coverage for uninsured Americans. The law includes government subsidies for those who can't afford to buy health coverage and can't get it from their employer. While the Republican-controlled House voted this week to repeal the law, a potentially more serious challenge...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- California's attorney general has asked a federal appeals court to allow gay marriages to resume while the court considers the constitutionality of the state's ban on same-sex unions. Attorney General Kamala Harris submitted a petition to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris told a federal appeals court Tuesday that the Obama administration's repudiation of a federal law denying marital benefits to gay and lesbian couples dims the legal prospects for Proposition 8, California's ban on same-sex marriage. Harris asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to let same-sex weddings resume in California while the court reviews Prop. 8. The case is on hold while the state Supreme Court decides whether the measure's sponsors can appeal a federal judge's decision declaring Prop. 8 unconstitutional. Even if backers have legal standing, Harris said, "the likelihood...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California's attorney general has again come out against the state's same-sex marriage ban, this time telling the state Supreme Court the proponents of successful ballot initiatives do not have the right to defend their measures in court. Kamala Harris, a Democrat who succeeded Gov. Jerry Brown in January as attorney general, submitted an amicus brief Monday in the ongoing legal dispute over the voter-approved ban known as Proposition 8.

Attorney General Kamala Harris and San Francisco city officials moved Thursday to derail a bid by backers of Proposition 8 to wipe out last year's ruling striking down the law because of the trial judge's same-sex relationship, calling it "tired," "meritless" and motivated by bias against gays. In court papers, Harris threw California's weight against Proposition 8 sponsors, who recently argued that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker should have removed himself from the legal battle over same-sex marriage because he has been in a long-term same-sex relationship. Walker last summer found that California's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional,...

California law enforcement agents have seized 1,200 firearms from people who cannot legally own them because of mental illness or restraining orders. However, Attorney General Kamala Harris said Thursday that more than 34,000 handguns and nearly 1,600 assault weapons are still believed to be held statewide by people who should not have them. Most people bought the weapons legally but were later prohibited from owning guns. But 12 people were arrested on suspicion of illegally owning assault weapons or grenades during a six-week sweep by the state Department of Justice in April and May. Harris said 90 percent of the...

State Attorney General Kamala Harris has rejected a GOP request that she opine on whether the state budget signed by Gov. Jerry Brown is constitutional. Republican lawmakers asked Harris last month to examine whether the budget complies with the constitution's requirements for education funding. Supervising deputy attorney general Susan Duncan Lee wrote in response that Harris' office could not do so because it will likely have to represent the state should someone sue on those grounds. Interestingly, Lee suggested in a Tuesday letter that the budget is destined for a court battle.

In a widely watched decision, the state attorney general's office today denied the sale of Victor Valley Community Hospital to Prime Healthcare Services' nonprofit foundation, saying the sale would not be "in the public interest." Prime's nonprofit foundation blasted the decision as "unexpected" and "inexplicable." Prime accused the attorney general of siding with a labor union that "has been running a blatantly false smear campaign of vilification against hospitals operated by Prime Healthcare." Prime, which owns 14 hospitals, has come under increasing fire for its business practices and is under investigation for possibly exaggerating the severity of patient illnesses for...

Who will be the next justice to retire, and who will be nominated to replace that person? SCOTUSblog does some prognosticating and says California Attorney General Kamala Harris could be the next nominee tapped for the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. There's one big problem, though: Harris may not want the job. “In the lists of names, only one truly stands out as checking every box: Kamala Harris,” Goldstein writes. Like the president, she is biracial, and she will be 50 years old in 2015. She is liberal, but she has a law enforcement background. The only...

California's death penalty has been in limbo since 2006, when a federal judge stayed the execution of Michael Morales, who was sentenced to death for the brutal 1981 murder and rape of 17-year-old Terri Winchell. The judge was fearful lest the state's three-drug lethal injection protocol would cause Morales undue pain. Since then, a number of states have switched to a one-drug protocol. Why hasn't California? The answer could be that Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris don't want the death penalty to work. Brown and Harris are personally opposed to the death penalty, but when they campaigned...

President Obama, speaking at his last California fundraiser Thursday, apparently couldn't help but gush about California Attorney General Kamala Harris. And it wasn't all about her legal chops. No, he also praised her looks. “She is brilliant and she is dedicated, and she is tough, and she is exactly what you'd want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake," Obama said. "She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country... It’s true! C’mon.”

President Obama felt the heat Thursday after calling a powerful female official smoking hot. And as luck would have it, he made the unfortunate comment on the same day his wife — remember her, tall lady with the midlife bangs? — mistakenly referred to herself as a single mother. But back to the Prez and his very male salivary glands: “She also happens to be by far the best looking attorney general in the country,” Obama said of California’s Kamala Harris during a fund-raiser. The unexpected comment ruffled the feathers of some observers and caused a commotion on social media...

What an interesting day in political foot in mouth from the White house. FLOUTS gave an interview to a CBS affiliate WCAX and said she was a, "Single Mother". President Obama flirtatiously called the California Attorney General the best looking in America. California Attorney General Kamala Harris did meet Obama at the Airport and it appears they were happy to see each other. We will be listening for a domestic at 1600 Pennsylvania.

Obama apology: US media react to Kamala Harris 'sexism' row US President Barack Obama has issued an apology after he was widely criticised for referring to the attorney general of California, Kamala Harris, as "the best-looking attorney general in the country". The White House said he had apologised to Ms Harris, a long-time friend, for the "distraction" created by his comments and that he fully recognised that women should not be judged on appearance. Commentators in the US have been giving their reaction to the apology, and whether Mr Obama was right to say sorry. Eric Golub writes in the...

President Barack Obama called California Attorney General Kamala Harris from Air Force One Thursday to apologize for calling her the "best-looking attorney general in the country." The remarks, made during a fundraiser in California yesterday, sparked a swift backlash among political commentators. New York magazine's Jonathan Chait called the remark "disgraceful," and Los Angeles Times columnist Robin Abcarian characterized it as "more wolfish than sexist." Clearly, Obama's handlers recognized they had a problem on their hands, and Obama called Harris a few hours later to apologize, according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. “You know, they are old friends...

If you aren’t familiar with the name Kamala Harris, you should be. The LA Times describes the California Attorney General thusly: “Aty. Gen. Kamala Harris is a veteran prosecutor, a skilled political leader and a promising politician who is sure to figure in California’s future.” She’s been called a “female Barack Obama” and she’s just as far-left as you might imagine.

The Supreme Court is allowing California to continue enforcing a law that bans the sale of foie gras. The justices on Tuesday rejected a challenge to the law from producers of the delicacy in New York and Canada. …

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday morning that proponents of Proposition 8 — the voter initiative in 2008 that amended the state constitution to say “only marriage between a man and a woman” is valid in California — have legal standing to defend the measure in court. That means the matter can proceed to the Ninth District Court of Appeals for a ruling on the merits of the measure. The legal question before the Supreme Court was procedural and unrelated to the substantive question of the constitutional validity of Prop. 8. It only assessed whether proponents of the measure can...