RBGG represents more than 34,000 people incarcerated in California’s prison system with serious mental illness, in the class action Coleman v. Newsom, 2:90-cv-00520-KJM-DB (E.D. Cal, filed April 23, 1990). Last week, the Ninth Circuit dismissed two appeals by the State, concluding that the State failed to show that either challenge was appropriate for appellate review.
First, on May 27, 2025, a panel of three Ninth Circuit judges unanimously dismissed the State’s appeal from the district court’s order requiring them to track, as part of the State’s self-monitoring tool, whether the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”) is adhering to certain requirements aimed at increasing access to critical mental health care for high-custody class members who are so mentally ill that they are admitted to the prison’s psychiatric hospitals.
The Ninth Circuit found it lacked jurisdiction to review the district court’s order because the order was just an interim step in ongoing proceedings to finalize the State’s self-monitoring tool, and thus the order was not sufficiently final and did not meet any other criteria for appellate review.
Second, on May 30, 2025, the Ninth Circuit similarly dismissed another of the State’s appeals for lack of jurisdiction. The district court had stayed the State’s proposed duplicative and highly burdensome expert tours of CDCR prisons, and the State appealed. The Ninth Circuit concluded that the order does not foreclose the State’s ability to conduct tours, as the State could renew its request for tours after making a threshold showing of the its’ relevance, and that the district court’s order was simply a case management decision. As such, the Ninth Circuit lacked jurisdiction to review the decision.
Judge Bress issued a narrow dissent, stating he believes there is jurisdiction, but explained that he would have affirmed on the merits because the district court’s decision to stay the tours was reasonable.
Because both appeals were dismissed, the district court’s orders remain in effect.