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Our 2026 August Meeting
For our August 2026 meeting, Judge Tom Long returned to lead our annual discussion of the recently concluded 2025-26 Supreme Court term. Tom is a longtime PV Democrat, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, and former two-term Mayor and City Councilmember of Palos Verdes Estates. Tom examined the Court's most significant opinions, explained the legal reasoning behind them, identified the philosophical divisions among the Justices, placed the decisions in historical context, and explored what they are likely to mean for our democracy, our institutions, and our daily lives.
As part of the program, Judge Long presented highlights from the 2026 UC Irvine School of Law Supreme Court Review, featuring Austin Parrish, Dean of the UC Irvine School of Law and Chancellor's Professor of Law, together with an outstanding panel of nationally respected legal scholars, including Mario Barnes, Chancellor's Professor of Law; Robert Chang, Chancellor's Professor of Law and Sylvia Mendez Presidential Chair for Civil Rights; Courtney Cahill, Professor of Law at the USC Gould School of Law; Ji Sion Song, Professor of Law at UC Irvine; and Paul Watford, former Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and now a partner at King & Spalding.
Watch our picnic video by clicking on the image.
What’s Happening at the PV Democrats
The event celebrated the Palos Verdes Democrats' long history of civic engagement while emphasizing the importance of Democratic organizing and participation in the 2026 elections. The club's president described the organization as having served the Peninsula for 74 years and emphasized democracy, equality, justice, and civic engagement as its core values.