Kern River hearing moved to San Francisco, state AG to weigh in

The California Supreme Court hearing on Kern River flows has been changed from Redding to the justices’ home court in San Francisco, according to the court’s website. The hearing will still be held Oct. 7 at 9 a.m.

The California Attorney General’s office and Department of Fish and Wildlife also accepted an offer from the Supreme Court to make their own arguments in support of the plaintiffs, Bring Back the Kern and Water Audit California.

This case has generated significant interest as it hinges on a key statute used in numerous conservation cases, California Fish and Game Code 5937.

Bring Back the Kern and Water Audit sued the City of Bakersfield in 2022 over how it operates the Kern River. They argued the city needed to study those operations under the Public Trust Doctrine, which requires all state waters be used for the highest, beneficial use, including public recreation and the environment. Because the river is dry through Bakersfield most of the time, plaintiffs argued, Bakersfield had been derelict in its Public Trust duty.

When the 2023 big water year brought fish back to the river, plaintiffs won a temporary injunction requiring Bakersfield to keep enough water in the river for fish under Fish and Game Code 5937, which requires dam owners let enough water pass downstream for fish.

Several agricultural water districts with river rights, which aren’t defendants but are “real parties in interest” in the case, appealed that injunction and the Fifth District Court of Appeal overturned it in April 2025 saying the judge should have determined how much water was needed for fish and then balanced that need against other water uses.

Bring Back the Kern and Water Audit sought to have that Fifth District decision reviewed by the Supreme Court, which was granted in July 2025.

After more than a year of briefs back and forth, justices are now ready for oral arguments. After the hearing Oct. 7, they have 90 days to issue their written opinion.

During the hearing, attorneys will be held to a strict timeline set out by the court:
• Plaintiffs get 20 minutes, less any time reserved for rebuttal
• The AG and Fish and Wildlife will get 10 minutes
• The defendant gets 15 minutes
• The water districts will get a collective 15 minutes

For those attending in person, the hearing will be held in the Ronald M. George State Office Complex, Earl Warren Building, 350 McAllister Street, Fourth Floor in San Francisco. It will also be webcast live on the Supreme Court’s website at https://supreme.courts.ca.gov/. Archives of those webcasts are typically posted to the court’s webpage two weeks to a month later.

Bring Back the Kern will hold a watch party at Dagny’s coffee shop in Bakersfield to view the historic hearing.

The last time Supreme Court justices heard a case involving the Kern River, their 1886 decision set the basis for California’s water rights system.