Save Our Capitol! v. Dept. of General Services

BACKGROUND

The California State Capitol is the seat of our state government. The Capitol building and the surrounding area are known as the State Capitol Complex, which has four general components: the Historic Capitol or West Wing (the oldest part of the Capitol building that includes the Capitol dome), Capitol Park (a park covering 40 acres), the Insectary (a small building initially designed to house insect-related experiments), and most relevant here, the Capitol Annex Building or East Wing (the Annex). (Save Our Capitol! v. Department of General Services (2023) 87 Cal.App.5th 655, 679 (Save Our Capitol).) The Annex—which connects to the Historic Capitol—includes offices for the Governor, legislators, and others. Over time, the Legislature found the Annex deficient. And so in the State Capitol Building Annex Act of 2016 (the Annex Act) (Gov. Code, § 9112 et seq.), it authorized “the Joint Rules Committee [to] pursue the construction of a state capitol building annex or the restoration, rehabilitation, renovation, or reconstruction of the State Capitol

2 Building Annex.” (Gov. Code, § 9112, subd. (a)(1), added by Stats. 2016, ch. 31, § 65, eff. June 27, 2017.) Two years…