CA SB 645

enacted

Juries: peremptory challenges.

California · 2025-2026 Regular Session · upper

Description

Existing law provides for the exclusion of a prospective juror from a trial jury by peremptory challenge. Existing law prohibits a party from using a peremptory challenge to remove a prospective juror on the basis of, among other things, the prospective juror's race, ethnicity, or gender. Existing law allows a party, or the trial court on its own motion, to object to the use of a peremptory challenge based on these criteria. Upon objection, existing law requires the party exercising the challenge to state the reasons the peremptory challenge has been exercised. Existing law requires the court to evaluate the reasons given, as specified, and, if the court grants the objection, authorizes the court to take certain actions, including, but not limited to, starting a new jury selection, declaring a mistrial at the request of the objecting party, seating the challenged juror, or providing another remedy as the court deems appropriate. Under existing law, one of the circumstances the court may consider includes whether the counsel or counsel's office exercising the challenge has used peremptory challenges disproportionately against a given race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, or religious affiliation, or perceived membership in any of these groups, in the present case or in past cases, as specified. Existing law, until January 1, 2026, prohibits the application of these provisions to civil cases. This bill would extend the prohibition against application of these provisions to civil cases indefinitely, except as specified, including cases involving a civil rights violation and cases for the civil commitment of a person. The bill would require the party bringing specified claims to notify the court and the other party or parties of the applicability of these provisions in those civil cases, as specified. The bill would limit the court's consideration of counsel or counsel's office use of peremptory challenges in the present case or in past cases, as described above, to when counsel or counsel's office is a public entity.

Introduced: 2025-02-20
Status date: —
Latest action: 2025-10-11 — Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 656, Statutes of 2025.
Bill type: bill
Last updated: —

Subjects

Committees

Not provided by source.

Action timeline

2025-02-20
Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.
introduction,reading-1,referral-committee
2025-02-21
From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 23.
2025-03-05
Referred to Com. on JUD.
referral-committee
2025-03-17
Set for hearing April 8.
2025-04-09
From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 0. Page 706.) (April 8). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable,referral-committee
2025-04-10
Set for hearing April 21.
2025-04-16
April 21 hearing postponed by committee.
2025-05-02
Set for hearing May 12.
2025-05-08
May 12 hearing postponed by committee.
2025-05-09
Set for hearing May 19.
2025-05-19
From committee: Be ordered to second reading pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8.
committee-passage,reading-1,reading-2
2025-05-20
Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
reading-1,reading-2,reading-3
2025-05-29
Read third time and amended.
amendment-passage,reading-1,reading-3
2025-05-29
Ordered to second reading.
reading-1,reading-2
2025-06-02
Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
reading-1,reading-2,reading-3
2025-06-04
Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 1494.) Ordered to the Assembly.
passage,reading-1,reading-3
2025-06-05
In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk.
reading-1
2025-06-16
Referred to Com. on JUD.
referral-committee
2025-07-03
From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on JUD.
amendment-passage,committee-passage,reading-1,reading-2,referral-committee
2025-07-09
From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (July 8). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable,referral-committee
2025-08-20
August 20 set for first hearing. Placed on APPR. suspense file.
2025-08-29
From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (August 29).
committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable
2025-09-02
Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
reading-1,reading-2,reading-3
2025-09-04
Read third time and amended.
amendment-passage,reading-1,reading-3
2025-09-04
Ordered to third reading.
reading-1,reading-3
2025-09-11
Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 80. Noes 0. Page 3275.) Ordered to the Senate.
passage,reading-1,reading-3
2025-09-12
In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
2025-09-12
Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 2987.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
amendment-passage,committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable
2025-09-23
Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
executive-receipt
2025-10-11
Approved by the Governor.
executive-signature
2025-10-11
Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 656, Statutes of 2025.
became-law

Versions

02/20/25 - Introduced — 2025-02-20Compare
05/29/25 - Amended Senate — 2025-05-29Compare
07/03/25 - Amended Assembly — 2025-07-03Compare
09/04/25 - Amended Assembly — 2025-09-04Compare
09/18/25 - Enrolled — 2025-09-18Compare
10/11/25 - Chaptered — 2025-10-11Compare
SB645Compare
(document, no version)Compare

Documents

Votes

Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations]
2025-04-08 · pass · 11-0
Member-level votes (13)
- Ashby: yes
- Durazo: yes
- Wahab: yes
- Wiener: yes
- Laird: yes
- Umberg: yes
- Valladares: yes
- Allen: yes
- Stern: yes
- Niello: yes
- Caballero: yes
- Arreguín: other
- Weber Pierson: other
3rd Reading
2025-06-04 · pass · 39-0
Member-level votes (40)
- Durazo: yes
- Menjivar: yes
- Limón: yes
- Rubio: yes
- Pérez: yes
- Padilla: yes
- Richardson: yes
- Smallwood-Cuevas: yes
- Weber Pierson: yes
- Wahab: yes
- Seyarto: yes
- Umberg: yes
- Hurtado: yes
- Grove: yes
- Niello: yes
- Wiener: yes
- Cortese: yes
- Allen: yes
- Cervantes: yes
- Jones: yes
- McGuire: yes
- Stern: yes
- Arreguín: yes
- Blakespear: yes
- Alvarado-Gil: yes
- Laird: yes
- Archuleta: yes
- McNerney: yes
- Cabaldon: yes
- Gonzalez: yes
- Caballero: yes
- Valladares: yes
- Strickland: yes
- Grayson: yes
- Becker: yes
- Ochoa Bogh: yes
- Choi: yes
- Ashby: yes
- Dahle: yes
- Reyes: other
Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations]
2025-07-08 · pass · 12-0
Member-level votes (12)
- Bryan: yes
- Dixon: yes
- Connolly: yes
- Stefani: yes
- Pacheco: yes
- Papan: yes
- Sanchez: yes
- Kalra: yes
- Zbur: yes
- Macedo: yes
- Harabedian: yes
- Hart: yes
Do pass.
2025-08-29 · pass · 15-0
Member-level votes (15)
- Ta: yes
- Elhawary: yes
- Pellerin: yes
- Fong: yes
- Pacheco: yes
- Tangipa: yes
- Calderon: yes
- Arambula: yes
- Dixon: yes
- Mark González: yes
- Sanchez: yes
- Wicks: yes
- Caloza: yes
- Ahrens: yes
- Solache: yes
SB 645 Umberg Senate Third Reading By Papan
2025-09-11 · pass · 80-0
Member-level votes (80)
- Addis: yes
- Haney: yes
- Elhawary: yes
- Carrillo: yes
- Ransom: yes
- Berman: yes
- Bauer-Kahan: yes
- Schiavo: yes
- Alvarez: yes
- Caloza: yes
- Hoover: yes
- Nguyen: yes
- Ortega: yes
- Solache: yes
- Lowenthal: yes
- Petrie-Norris: yes
- Gabriel: yes
- Zbur: yes
- DeMaio: yes
- Hadwick: yes
- Irwin: yes
- Tangipa: yes
- Patel: yes
- Kalra: yes
- Sanchez: yes
- Johnson: yes
- Mark González: yes
- Gipson: yes
- Hart: yes
- Calderon: yes
- Wilson: yes
- Soria: yes
- Valencia: yes
- Celeste Rodriguez: yes
- Connolly: yes
- Papan: yes
- Bonta: yes
- Jeff Gonzalez: yes
- Alanis: yes
- Patterson: yes
- Jackson: yes
- Davies: yes
- Pellerin: yes
- Muratsuchi: yes
- Krell: yes
- Chen: yes
- Quirk-Silva: yes
- Bains: yes
- Michelle Rodriguez: yes
- Arambula: yes
- Bennett: yes
- Ávila Farías: yes
- Aguiar-Curry: yes
- Lee: yes
- Castillo: yes
- Wallis: yes
- Stefani: yes
- Ta: yes
- Blanca Rubio: yes
- Gallagher: yes
- Ellis: yes
- Macedo: yes
- McKinnor: yes
- Ramos: yes
- Rivas: yes
- Ahrens: yes
- Dixon: yes
- Rogers: yes
- Ward: yes
- Fong: yes
- Wicks: yes
- Schultz: yes
- Pacheco: yes
- Boerner: yes
- Sharp-Collins: yes
- Bryan: yes
- Harabedian: yes
- Lackey: yes
- Flora: yes
- Garcia: yes
Unfinished Business SB645 Umberg Concurrence
2025-09-12 · pass · 37-0
Member-level votes (40)
- McGuire: yes
- Becker: yes
- Cabaldon: yes
- Caballero: yes
- Weber Pierson: yes
- McNerney: yes
- Grayson: yes
- Umberg: yes
- Dahle: yes
- Niello: yes
- Pérez: yes
- Jones: yes
- Padilla: yes
- Ochoa Bogh: yes
- Cervantes: yes
- Menjivar: yes
- Wiener: yes
- Wahab: yes
- Laird: yes
- Alvarado-Gil: yes
- Stern: yes
- Rubio: yes
- Richardson: yes
- Hurtado: yes
- Reyes: yes
- Blakespear: yes
- Arreguín: yes
- Strickland: yes
- Seyarto: yes
- Ashby: yes
- Allen: yes
- Valladares: yes
- Durazo: yes
- Archuleta: yes
- Grove: yes
- Limón: yes
- Cortese: yes
- Smallwood-Cuevas: other
- Choi: other
- Gonzalez: other

Related bills

No related bills recorded for this bill.

Official source

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB645

Attribution

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