Apr. 24, 2026
Showdown over sheriffs' power
Two cases before the California Supreme Court are set to test who has power over the state's elected sheriffs -- one pitting the attorney general against Riverside County's Chad Bianco over his Proposition 50 election investigation, the other weighing a Sonoma County watchdog's authority to subpoena deputies.
California's 58 elected sheriffs and its seven Supreme Court justices have largely stayed out of each other's way over the decades.
When they did clash, the rule of law prevailed over the sheriffs' assertion of privilege as an independent authority named in the state Constitution and answerable only to voters.
In the 1970s then-Sheriff Peter J. Pitchess of Los Angeles fought and lost, 7-0, the right to keep evidence of deputies' misconduct or dishonesty a...
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