The bullet points below outline the Senate Judiciary Committee’s policy regarding support and opposition letters. Any letters received will be kept as part of the Committee's official legislative records and may be read into the record, reprinted, or cited in the Committee analysis.
Please read all bullet points thoroughly.
- Please note: Our letter deadline is the Tuesday before the hearing at 12pm (unless otherwise stated). Letters received after the deadline may not be reflected in the analysis. For example, if a bill will be heard on Tuesday, March 26, the letter deadline is the Tuesday prior, March 19, at 12 p.m.
- We will accept letters that are addressed to the author’s office and/or other Committees, but they must be specifically submitted to our Committee using one of these approved methods:
- Through the Advocacy Portal; or
- E-mail - sjud.fax@sen.ca.gov; or
- Fax - (916) 403-7394; or
- Mailed to us at: Senate Judiciary Committee, 1021 O Street, Room 3240, Sacramento, CA 95814
- If you are using the Advocacy Portal, you must submit your letter directly to our Committee. Letters submitted only to other Committees through the Advocacy Portal may not be reflected in the analysis.
- Only positions in support or opposition of a bill will be listed in an analysis. Positions of conditional support or conditional opposition will not be listed in an analysis. “Oppose unless amended” will be reflected as opposition. Positions of “Support if amended” will not be reflected. However, we will still accept these letters of conditional positions, review the content of the letters for our analyses, and these letters will become part of the Committee’s official bill file.
- For letters submitted to the author’s office, it is the author’s office’s responsibility to provide the letters they received regarding their bill to our Committee directly, through e-mail or the Advocacy Portal.
- If an organization or individual changes their position on the bill, it is the responsibility of the organization/individual changing their position to submit an updated position letter to the Committee. In the absence of an updated letter, the Committee will assume that the organization/individual’s position remains unchanged.
- For letters from multiple organizations (coalition letters), provide the name of each organization signing the letter, as well as a named individual responsible for that organization’s position on the bill in the signature section of the letter. A signature from each individual is not required. If you do not list each specific organization, they may not be reflected in the analysis. Additionally, if you submit more than one letter under a single organization's name to the Advocacy Portal, they will NOT be individually reflected in the analysis. You MUST list each and every organization on the coalition letter individually when submitting letters through the Advocacy Portal. If you do not do this, your letter will look like a duplicate letter submitted under the initial representative/organization name.
- Committee staff are not responsible for distributing letters to Committee Members' offices, authors' offices, or other committees.