SB873 - Courthouses: privilege from civil arrest.

Amended IN Assembly August 20, 2026 Amended IN Assembly June 15, 2026 Amended IN Senate May 21, 2026 Amended IN Senate March 25, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Senate Bill No. 873 Introduced by Senators Reyes and Umberg (Coauthors: Senators Durazo and Gonzalez) (Coauthors: Assembly Members Zbur and Kalra) Addis, Kalra, Papan, and Zbur) January 06, 2026 An act to add Section 43.541 Sections 43.541 and 43.542 to, and to repeal and add Section 43.54 of, the Civil Code, relating to courts. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 873, as amended, Reyes. Courthouses: privilege from civil arrest. Existing law prohibits a person from being subject to civil arrest in a courthouse while attending a court proceeding or having legal business in a courthouse, except pursuant to a valid judicial warrant. Existing law confers specified powers to judicial officers, including to preserve and enforce order in the officer’s immediate presence and in proceedings before the officer, to compel obedience to the officer’s lawful orders, and to prohibit activities that threaten access to courthouses and court proceedings, including protecting the privilege from civil arrest at courthouses and court proceedings. This bill would prohibit a person from being subject to civil arrest while traveling to, while present at, or while traveling from a courthouse for any lawful activity, as defined. The bill would authorize a court to issue appropriate judicial orders to protect the privilege from civil arrest. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to bring a civil action to obtain appropriate equitable and declaratory relief if the Attorney General has reasonable cause to believe that a violation of these provisions has occurred or is imminent. The bill would also authorize a person who has been subject to civil arrest to bring a civil action for appropriate equitable and declaratory relief and civil damages, including actual damages and statutory damages of $10,000. Under the bill, a civil arrest in violation of these provisions or the common law privilege against civil arrest would constitute false imprisonment or false arrest if the person was going to, remaining at, or returning from court for any lawful activity, and each person in violation of these provisions or who assists in the violation of these provisions would be liable for civil damages for the tort of false imprisonment or false arrest, including actual damages and statutory damages of $10,000. The bill would authorize a party in a successful action to recover court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. The bill would exempt a court, judicial officer, or court personnel acting lawfully pursuant to their duty to maintain safety and order in the courts from any action or proceeding pursuant to these provisions. This bill would require, when court security personnel are aware that any representative of a local, state, or federal law enforcement agency, while acting in an official capacity, enters a courthouse, that court security personnel request the law enforcement representative or representatives identify themselves and state their specific law enforcement purposes and intended enforcement action to be taken, and request from the law enforcement representative or representatives a copy of a valid judicial warrant concerning the intended enforcement action to be taken. The bill would require, if court security personnel are aware there is an attorney representing a person named in the judicial warrant in any capacity, that court security personnel request the law enforcement representative to afford the attorney the right to review the warrant. This bill would require the Judicial Council to annually prepare a report compiling statistics, aggregated by county, of information related to civil arrests, as specified. The bill would require the Judicial Council to publicly post the report on its public internet website. This bill would also make related findings and declarations and specify that the provisions of this act are severable. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares the following: (a) California courts are a cornerstone of California’s government, ensuring the right of every person to obtain justice under the California Constitution, and playing government. The judicial power of this state is vested in the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, and superior courts, and California courts play an essential role in the peaceful and just resolution of disputes. disputes, the protection of due process, the vindication of rights, and the state’s ability to promote the public health, safety, and general welfare of all persons in California. (b) Access Meaningful access to courts and the court’s ability to administer justice is, therefore, a matter of statewide concern, fostering fairness while promoting concern. They foster fairness, protect the integrity of judicial proceedings, and promote public confidence in, and respect for, the judicial process. (c) The threat that persons may be subject to civil arrest while in California’s courthouses or attending judicial proceedings is a threat to the proper functioning of California’s government and to the rights enjoyed by all Californians. Protecting persons from civil arrest at or near California’s courthouses or judicial proceedings is necessary to ensure that litigants, witnesses, victims of crime, and others are not deterred from participating in such proceedings so that courts and parties have access to testimony and other evidence critical to factfinding and to ensure the dignity of judicial proceedings is upheld. (d) Access to courts is necessary to preserve the right to petition government for redress, and to preserve numerous trial rights of individuals, including the right to be present, to present claims and defenses, to testify at trial, to call witnesses, to compulsory process, and to have a public trial. Access to courts also protects Californians’ rights to equal protection of the laws. (e) Protecting persons from civil arrest while on or near California’s courthouses or judicial proceedings is also necessary to preserve the individual rights of all Californians. Access to courts is also part of the right to free speech enshrined in the California and United States Constitutions. (f) Public scrutiny of judicial proceedings allows the public to observe the functioning of their government, fostering fairness, promoting public confidence in the judicial process, serving as a critical check on the use and abuse of judicial power, and enhancing the truth-finding function of judicial proceedings. (g) Civil arrests of persons in California’s courthouses or attending judicial proceedings are unreasonable and unlawful seizures whether undertaken by local, state, or federal officers. (h) Courts are essential to a republican form of government and to the functioning of California’s government. California has the reserved power under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to protect their proceedings. (c) California law has long recognized that the administration of justice is undermined when parties, witnesses, or other participants in judicial proceedings are deterred from attending court. Section 1209 of the Code of Civil Procedure, first enacted in 1872 and rooted in earlier California practice and common law principles, treats as contempt the unlawful detention of a witness or party to an action while they are going to, remaining at, or returning from the court where the action is on the calendar for trial. (d) The privilege against civil arrest in connection with court attendance and other lawful activity at courthouses is a longstanding common law doctrine, recognized in English and American law to protect the administration of justice by ensuring that parties, witnesses, and other necessary participants may attend court without fear of arrest in unrelated civil matters. California has codified protection against civil arrest in courthouses while preserving that broader common law privilege. Section 43.54 of the Civil Code, which provides that a person shall not be subject to civil arrest in a courthouse while attending a court proceeding or having legal business in the courthouse, expressly preserves any existing common law privilege and does not apply to arrests made pursuant to a valid judicial warrant. (e) Subjecting persons to arrest for civil, noncriminal matters while they are attending or attempting to attend or after they have attended court proceedings, when these persons have lawful business at a courthouse or are accompanying or assisting a party, witness, potential witness, victim, family member, or other court user, threatens the fair administration of justice in this state. (f) Victims, witnesses, litigants, and other court users may be reluctant to attend and participate in court proceedings, report crimes, seek protective orders, pursue legal remedies, comply with subpoenas, or otherwise access the justice system when they fear civil arrest in or near courthouses or while going to, remaining at, or returning from court proceedings. (g) Civil arrests connected to lawful activity at courthouses impose burdens on California courts, court staff, litigants, attorneys, victims, witnesses, and the public by causing failures to appear, adjournments, delays, continuances, and postponements; by impairing courts’ abilities to obtain testimony and evidence necessary for fair and accurate factfinding; and by limiting open access to judicial proceedings. (h) Civil arrests connected to courthouse attendance also interfere with the ability of attorneys to represent clients diligently and to fulfill their duties as officers of the court. Attorneys should not be forced to choose between advising clients to appear in court and exposing those clients, witnesses, family members, or other necessary participants to the risk of civil arrest. (i) Civil arrests in or near courthouses or while a person is going to, remaining at, or returning from a court proceeding or other lawful activity at court, threaten the functioning of the California court system by deterring litigants, witnesses, victims, family members, and other participants from appearing, participating in, and observing judicial proceedings. (j) California has a sovereign interest and authority to protect the effective functioning, independence, integrity, and operation of its judicial system, including by ensuring that courts remain open and accessible to all persons whose presence is necessary for the administration of justice. (k) Civil arrests of persons in or near California courthouses or of persons attending, attempting to attend, or returning from judicial proceedings or other lawful activities at a courthouse threaten the aforementioned public and private interests, impair core judicial functions, and undermine the fair administration of justice. (i) (l) The provisions of this act are necessary to protect and preserve the integrity of the proceedings of the judicial branch of California government. SEC. 2. Section 43.54 of the Civil Code is repealed. SEC. 3. Section 43.54 is added to the Civil Code, to read: 43.54. (a) A person shall not be subject to civil arrest while traveling to, while present at, or while traveling from present at a courthouse for any lawful activity. It shall be presumed that persons are traveling to, engaging in, or traveling from, lawful activity while present at a courthouse. (b) A person shall not be subject to civil arrest while traveling to or while traveling from a courthouse for any lawful activity. (c) It shall be presumed that a person traveling to, traveling from, or present at a courthouse is engaging in lawful activity. (b) (d) This section does not narrow or in any way lessen any existing common law privilege. (c) (e) This section does not apply to arrests made pursuant to a valid judicial warrant. (d) (f) A court may issue appropriate judicial orders to protect the privilege from civil arrest under this section or common law, in addition to the powers available pursuant to Section 177 of the Code of Civil Procedure. (e) The Attorney General may bring a civil action in the name of the people of the State of California to obtain appropriate equitable and declaratory relief if the Attorney General has reasonable cause to believe that a violation of this section has occurred or is imminent. (f) (1) A person who has been subject to civil arrest in violation of this section or the common law privilege protecting persons from civil arrest while at, or coming to or from, a courthouse may bring a civil action for appropriate equitable and declaratory relief and shall be entitled to civil damages for violation of the privilege from civil arrest, including actual damages and statutory damages of $10,000. (g) (1) Except as provided in subdivision (c) of Section 43.541, a civil arrest in violation of this section or the common law privilege protecting persons from civil arrest while at, or coming to or from, a courthouse shall constitute the tort of false imprisonment or false arrest if the arresting person or persons knew or reasonably should have known that the person arrested was going to, remaining at, or returning from court for any lawful activity. Each person who violates this section, or assists in its violation, shall be liable for civil damages for false imprisonment or false arrest, including actual damages and statutory damages of ten thousand dollars ($10,000). (2) A party in a successful action to enforce liability for a violation of this section may recover court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. (g) (1) Notwithstanding subdivision (c), when court security personnel are aware that any representative of a local, state, or federal law enforcement agency, while acting in an official capacity, enters a courthouse, court security personnel shall do both of the following: (A) Request the law enforcement representative or representatives to identify themselves and state their specific law enforcement purpose and the intended enforcement action to be taken. (B) Request from the law enforcement representative or representatives a copy of a valid judicial warrant concerning the intended enforcement action to be taken. (2) If court security personnel are aware there is an attorney representing a person named in the judicial warrant in any capacity, court security personnel shall request the law enforcement representative to afford that attorney the right to review the warrant. (h) No action or proceeding may be commenced pursuant to this section against a court, a judicial officer, or any court employee, as defined in Section 71601 of the Government Code, acting lawfully pursuant to their duty to maintain safety and order in the courts. (i) (h [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]