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General Order #GO26-005 (effective January 1, 2026, in effect until December 31, 2027): prohibited activity (demonstrating, picketing, parading, distributing literature, soliciting and similar acts) is barred within a courthouse and its curtilage; no obstructing, harassing or impeding persons entering, leaving or waiting in line; no approaching a person waiting in line within eight (8) feet without consent; no activity intended to interfere with the administration of justice; limits on amplification equipment; exclusions for court personnel, law enforcement and licensed stationary sales; compliance with law enforcement; and sanctions of up to $1,500 per violation (Code of Civil Procedure, section 177.5) and/or criminal prosecution.
California > Fourth Appellate District > San Bernardino County > Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino
SUPERIOR COURT COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO 247 West Third Street, Eleventh Floor San Bernardino, CA 92415 IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO IN RE: COURT ACCESS GENERAL ORDER #GO26-005 GENERAL ORDER OF THE PRESIDING JUDGE The purpose of this General Order is to ensure the safe and orderly use of court facilities; to minimize activities that unreasonably disrupt, interrupt or interfere with the orderly and peaceable conduct of court business in a neutral forum free of actual or perceived partiality, bias, prejudice or favoritism; to provide for the fair and orderly conduct of hearings and trials; to promote the free flow of pedestrian and vehicular traffic on sidewalks and streets around court facilities; and to maintain proper judicial decorum. The further purpose of this General Order is to facilitate safe and orderly access to the courthouses unhindered by threats, confrontation, interference, noise pollution or harassment that may be directed at court users including, but not limited to, those court users waiting outside a courthouse. This General Order regulates only conduct occurring in and around court facilities without regard to the content of any particular message, opinion, idea or form of speech. The court does not intend to ban all expressive activities from the environs surrounding court facilities and intends this General Order to be construed so as to provide ample alternatives channels for communication of information near but not within court facilities or courthouse grounds. (See, Comfort v. McLaughlin (C.D. Cal 2006) 473 F. Supp.2d 1026). WHEREFORE, the Court hereby orders: I. DEFINITIONS A. The following definitions apply for the purposes of this General Order: 1. “Prohibited Activity” shall mean any and all of the acts of demonstrating, picketing, parading, distributing literature or other materials, soliciting sales or donations, engaging in commercial activity and engaging in oral or demonstrative protest, education or counseling. 2. “Walkway” shall mean (a) any corridor, sidewalk or other path of pedestrian movement directly from the edge of the public sidewalk nearest an entrance to any building containing a courtroom; (b) any corridor, sidewalk or other path of pedestrian movement leading directly from a parking lot within the curtilage to an entrance to any building containing a courtroom; and (c) any corridor or passageway within a multi-purpose, commercial or private building that leads directly to the part of the building containing a courtroom. 3. “Curtilage” shall mean any area between any building containing a courtroom and nearest edge of public sidewalk surrounding the building. It shall not include the area adjacent to that portion of a multi-purpose, commercial or private building that does not contain a courtroom. 4. “Courthouse” shall mean any building containing, at least, one (1) courtroom. It shall also mean that portion of a multi-purpose commercial or private building that contains, at least, one (1) courtroom. II. PROHIBITIONS A. No person shall engage in any prohibited activity within a courthouse. B. No person shall engage in any prohibited activity within the curtilage of a courthouse. C. No person shall obstruct, harass, impede or interfere with any person entering or leaving a courthouse or with any person waiting in line to enter a courthouse. D. No person shall approach another person waiting in line to enter a courthouse, within eight (8) feet of the other person, for the purpose of engaging in a prohibited activity unless the other person consents. E. No person shall engage in any prohibited activity in or near a courthouse with the intent to interfere with, obstruct or impede the administration of justice or with the intent to influence any judge, juror, witness or officer of the court in the discharge of their duty. F. No person shall use amplification equipment to engage in any prohibited activity in a manner that harasses or interferes with any person leaving or entering a courthouse or with any person waiting in line to enter a courthouse. III. EXCLUSIONS This Order shall not apply to authorized court personnel or law enforcement officers in the performance of their official duties. Section II, (A) and (B), shall not apply to persons engaged in the stationary solicitation of sales as part of any commercial, primarily non-expressive, activity including, but not limited to, the sale of food stuffs, reading materials and sundries in a specific space not dedicated to court functions and expressly authorized by a written lease, space permit, license or other written agreement executed by the Court, County of San Bernardino or the owner of a building containing a courtroom. IV. SEVERABILITY Should any provision of this General Order be held invalid, the validity of the other provisions of this General Order shall not be affected. V. COMPLIANCE WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT It is further ordered that all persons must comply with the lawful requests, directions and orders made by any law enforcement officers and their agents in the performance of their duties while they are on or in the premises of any courthouse. VI. NOTICE It is ordered that this General Order shall be posted at each public entrance to a courthouse and on the Court’s webpage, www.sb-court.org. The Sheriff of San Bernardino County and his/her deputies are directed to serve a copy of this General Order on any person or organization who appears to be in violation thereof and to advise the person or organization of the apparent violation. If the apparent violation continues after such notice, the Sheriff or his/her deputies are authorized to enforce this General Order to ensure the orderly and peaceable conduct of court business at the courthouse. The Sheriff or his/her deputies shall notify the Court’s Public Safety Officer, Court Counsel, and/or the Supervising Judge of that district or his/her designee of the occurrence. VII. PENALTIES Violation of this Order may result in the imposition of sanctions in an amount up to $1,500 per violation pursuant to the Code of Civil Procedure, section 177.5., and/or criminal prosecution. VIII. EFFECT OF PRIOR ORDERS This order is effective January 1, 2026, and supersedes all previous general orders entitled Court Access, issued by previous Presiding Judges. This order shall remain in effect until December 31, 2027. Dated this 1st day of January, 2026. Rod Cortez Presiding Judge of the Superior Court General Order: Court Access [The order is signed above the printed name. The case name "Comfort v. McLaughlin" and the title "Court Access," are italicized in the print; the web address is underlined. The print's "ample alternatives channels", "(C.D. Cal 2006)" and "section 177.5., and/or" are transcribed as printed. The running footer "General Order: Court Access" is transcribed once; page numbers and pleading line numbers are omitted.]
SUPERIOR COURT COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO 247 West Third Street, Eleventh Floor San Bernardino, CA 92415 IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO IN RE: COURT ACCESS GENERAL ORDER #GO26-005 GENERAL ORDER OF THE PRESIDING JUDGE The purpose of this General Order is to ensure the safe and orderly use of court facilities; to minimize activities that unreasonably
Reviewer note: Transcribed 2026-10-07 (California T4 San Bernardino build 2026-10-07) from BenchPath custody ca/t4/ca-san-bernardino/docs/forms-filing/courtaccess.pdf (209185 bytes, sha256 a13ca1b560f228e79df23d89d8f6d44a16314e706600814a4d30149f5214f123; 5 pages) - transcribed by eye from the rendered page images (200 dpi), every page read against its image; RapidOCR's reading of each page, and the file's own text layer where it has one, served only as second readers - every six-word window of the transcription was looked up in them and every miss checked on the page image, and every quotation mark, apostrophe and dash checked on a crop of the page (custody vision/check-log.md); captions set cell by cell, zip-code tables one row per line (zip codes | city), pleading continuation marks and line numbers omitted, running footers transcribed once, handwritten fills in place, with a closing bracketed note; a signature itself is not transcribed.
9 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-10.
6 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-13.