We filed our appeal papers with the Sacramento Superior Court late last week (technically, a writ of administrative mandate). Yesterday, we received notice that the hearing on our application for a stay of the Board’s revocation order will take place on March 17th at 3:45 PM via zoom. It will be watchable by the public. I will post details about how to watch it next week.

These writ cases are heard by judges who only hear writ cases which usually involve the review of government actions. The writ judge assigned to our case is the Hon. James P Arguelles. Very smart guy, Naval Academy graduate, Harvard Law School, manga cum laude, big firm experience, and a former AUSA. He was appointed by Gov. Arnold back in 2010, and the former president nominated him to a federal judgeship in June, but it didn’t go through before the end of Trump’s term and was I think automatically withdrawn. Draw your own conclusions based on your experience with the California political mandatory vaccine battles, for what it’s worth.

The standard practice is for the judge to issue a “tentative decision” the afternoon before the “hearing” and the hearing is the opportunity for the losing party to tell the judge why he is wrong. (good luck with that!) So, we might well know Tuesday afternoon whether we get the stay or not. Win or lose, the judge will issue a schedule for further briefing and a hearing date for the actual writ/appeal. I would expect the final hearing to be in May or early June.

To give you a sense of the law and our arguments, here is our legal memo which discusses it all and why we think we are entitled to a stay of the board’s order under the applicable legal standards.
memoinsupportofstay

Wish us luck!

Rick Jaffe, Esq.