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Expressive activity at the court's courthouses and in remote proceedings: definitions (expressive activity, walkway, curtilage); prohibitions inside courthouses, on exterior court property and walkways, against obstructing or approaching people entering or waiting in line, in or near courthouses and in remote proceedings, and against amplification; exclusions; delegation; courtroom; compliance with law enforcement; posting and service; violations and penalties.
California > Sixth Appellate District > Santa Clara County > Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara
[File stamp: FILED, June 29, 2023, Clerk of the Court, Superior Court of CA County of Santa Clara, By: David K. Walker, Deputy] SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA AMENDED GENERAL ORDER RE: EXPRESSIVE ACTIVITY NOTICE TO ALL PERSONS ENTERING COURTROOMS AND COURTHOUSES REMOTELY AND IN PERSON IN SANTA CLARA COUNTY THE COURT HEREBY ORDERS: 1. Demonstrations, Distributions, Solicitation and Other Expressive Activity A. The following definitions apply in this Order: (i) “Expressive Activity” shall mean the acts of demonstrating, protesting, gathering, picketing, parading, distributing literature or other materials to the general public, recording or broadcasting (other than news media recording or broadcasting which is covered by a different Order), soliciting sales or donations, engaging in commercial activity unless otherwise authorized by this Order or the Court, or engaging in oral or demonstrative protest, education or counseling. (ii) “Walkway” shall mean (a) the area of any corridor or sidewalk, or other path of pedestrian movement, directly from the edge of the public sidewalk nearest an entrance to any building containing a courtroom to that entrance; (b) the area of any corridor or sidewalk leading directly from any parking lot within a curtilage to an entrance to any building containing a courtroom; or (c) a corridor or passageway within a multi-purpose, commercial, or private building that leads directly to the part of the building containing a courtroom. (iii) “Curtilage” shall mean the area between any building containing a courtroom and the nearest edge of the 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. (iv) “Courthouse" shall mean any building containing at least one courtroom. It shall also include that portion of a multi-purpose, commercial or private building that contains at least one courtroom. Courthouse also includes remote court proceedings, whether audio only, visual only or both audio-visual. (v) "Sound amplification devices" and "sound amplification equipment" includes bullhorns, speakers, drums, pipes, cowbells, horns, triangles, air horns, bells, sirens, alarms, clappers, stereos, music players, car horns, boom boxes, musical instruments, and any other noise-makers. (vi) "Harass" shall mean engage in aggressive or offensive behavior intended to intimidate, disturb, bother, pester or annoy. 2. Prohibitions A. No person shall engage in any expressive activity within the interior of a courthouse or in a remote court proceeding, or engage in any expressive activity that unreasonably disrupts, interrupts or interferes with the orderly and peaceable conduct of court business in the interior of the courthouse or in a remote court proceeding. B. No person shall engage in any expressive activity on the exterior property of a courthouse, walkway or within the curtilage of a courthouse, or engage in any expressive activity that unreasonably disrupts, interrupts or interferes with the orderly and peaceable conduct of court business on the exterior of the courthouses. C. No person shall obstruct, harass, impede or interfere with persons entering or leaving a courthouse, with persons waiting in line to enter a courthouse or with persons participating in a remote court proceeding. D. No person shall approach another person waiting in line to enter a courthouse, within 8 feet of such person, unless such other person consents, for the purpose of engaging in any expressive activity. E. No person shall engage in any expressive activity in or near a courthouse or in a remote court proceeding with the intent to interfere with, obstruct, or impede the administration of justice or with the intent to influence any hearing, trial, or business of the Court, or of any judge, juror, witness, or officer of the court in the discharge of his or her duty. F. No person shall use amplification devices or equipment to engage in expressive activity on or near any courthouse grounds in a manner that harasses, interferes with or attempts to persuade persons inside a courthouse, with persons entering or leaving a courthouse, with persons waiting in line to enter a courthouse, any hearing, trial, business of the Court, judge, juror, witness, or officer of the court in the discharge of his or her duty. G. If sound from any expressive activity travels onto Court property or inside a courthouse, that sound, at any decibel level, is subject to the restrictions of this Order. It is not the decibel level of the sound that is prohibited, it is whether the sound interferes in any way with the business or purpose of the Court. 3. Exclusions A. This Order shall not apply to authorized court personnel or law enforcement officers in the performance of their official duties. B. Sections 2(A), 2(B), and 2(C) 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 newspapers, reading materials, sundries or food stuffs) expressly authorized by a written use permit, license, or agreement from the County or the Court or the Judicial Council or other owner of a building containing a courtroom authorizing that activity in a specific space not dedicated to court functions. 4. Severability Clause If any provision of this Order or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of the Order and the application of such provision to other persons and circumstances shall not be affected thereby. 5. Delegation To the extent the terms of this Order do not accomplish its stated purpose at a courthouse, on delegation by the Presiding Judge, the Supervising Judge responsible for that courthouse is hereby authorized to issue an order to accomplish the stated purpose of this Order. 6. Other Restrictions This Order does not prohibit the Court from imposing any other reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on persons engaged in such activity. There may be more restrictions, depending on the circumstances. 7. Courtroom This Order does not prohibit any judge from making necessary orders to ensure that judicial proceedings in the judge's courtroom are conducted in an orderly manner and to halt or prevent disruptions of court proceedings. 8. Compliance with Law Enforcement While on or in the premises of any courthouse, all persons are ordered to comply with the lawful requests, directions and orders of any law enforcement officers and their agents in the performance of their duties pursuant to this Order. This Order shall not preclude any law enforcement officer from taking appropriate steps outside this Order to ensure the orderly and peaceable conduct of Court business at a courthouse, or to enforce the laws of California. ////////// 9. Posting and Service of Order This Order shall be posted at each public entrance to a courthouse, on the Court’s website and at such other places that will reasonably provide notice of this Order to persons entering such courthouse or remote court proceeding. The Sheriff of Santa Clara County, their deputies and their agents are directed to serve a copy of this Order personally on any person who appears to be in violation thereof and to advise such person of the apparent violation. 10. Violations If the apparent violation continues after such notice, the Sheriff of Santa Clara County, their deputies and their agents will immediately notify the Presiding Judge, or whomever the Presiding Judge has designated to act in his or her place, to determine if there is a violation and to take appropriate action to ensure compliance with this Order. 11. Penalties Violation of this Order may result in the imposition of sanctions in amounts of up to $1,500 per violation pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 177.5. Additionally, violation of this Order may result in imprisonment for up to six months in the county jail, pursuant to Penal Code section 166. If there are violations of other specific laws outside this Order, those penalties shall also apply, including fines, fees, restraining orders and imprisonment. It is the purpose and intent of the Court in issuing this Order to ensure the safe and orderly use of court facilities and remote court proceedings; to minimize activities which 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 intent of this Order is to allow and accommodate free speech as long as it does not interfere with Court business and the purpose of the Court. The Court further issues this Order to facilitate safe, peaceful, and orderly public access to courthouses and remote court proceedings 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 in line outside a courthouse or in a remote court proceeding. The Court intends this Order to be enforced in a content-neutral fashion. The Order regulates only conduct occurring in and around court facilities and in remote court proceedings without regard to the content of any particular message, idea or form of speech. The Court does not intend to ban all expressive activities from the environs surrounding court facilities and intends that this Order be construed so as to provide for ample alternative channels for communication of information near but not within court facilities, on courthouse grounds or in remote court proceedings. (See Comfort v. Maclaughlin (C.D. Cal. 2006) 473 F.Supp.2d 1026). GOOD CAUSE APPEARING THEREFORE, IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: June 29, 2023 Presiding Judge Beth McGowen Santa Clara County Superior Court AMENDED GENERAL ORDER RE EXPRESSIVE ACTIVITY
[File stamp: FILED, June 29, 2023, Clerk of the Court, Superior Court of CA County of Santa Clara, By: David K. Walker, Deputy] SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA AMENDED GENERAL ORDER RE: EXPRESSIVE ACTIVITY NOTICE TO ALL PERSONS ENTERING COURTROOMS AND COURTHOUSES REMOTELY AND IN PERSON IN SANTA CLARA COUNTY THE COURT HEREBY ORDERS: 1. Demonstrations,
Reviewer note: Composed 2026-09-28 (California T3 Santa Clara build 2026-09-28) from BenchPath custody ca/t3/ca-santa-clara/expressive-activity-order.pdf (194065 bytes, sha256 5e4c7f8122d380e8bf618df9e09ed60738b25b19410ef191bb0019b8fe48a458; 6 pages) with the shared verbatim composer: pleading line numbers, page numbers, running headers and footers removed as chrome, lines reflowed into the document's paragraphs; proof 1 (whitespace-only) and proof 2 (same character multiset as the text layer minus chrome) both pass. The FILED stamp is an image except its date, which the text layer carries; the stamp is written as a bracketed note (the date as printed, the rest read from the stamp image). Corrected 2026-10-13 (California go-live, gate section B): the source PDF's text layer encodes the printed straight closing quote of "Courthouse" in definition (iv) as two apostrophes; set as printed (read on a 400-dpi render of page 2).
9 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-10.
6 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-13.