Why the Terifaj case?
The California Supreme Court is reviewing a lower court ruling in the Terifaj case, and I will link that opinion when I find it. But it is curious because Terifaj, which involves a "no pets" restriction, would seem to be governed by the Nahrsedt case that the Cal SC decided a few years back. That case said pet restrictions were reasonable and also established a pro-BOD standard for determining reasonableness (reasonable in the abstract rather than reasonable as applied in the instant case).

Anyway, why are they taking up such a similar issue? Does it mean they are going to reconsider Nahrstedt?

Here's some speculation from a person with some solid insider perspective, Marjorie Murray, Chief Legislative Advocate/CID Housing of the Congress of California Seniors:

Evan --

One ingredient which may be at work in the Supreme Court's willingness to review Paula Terifaj's case is AB 512 signed into California law last year. The law is obviously not retroactive.

However, it established the principles that (1) rulemaking is a joint function of boards and homeowners (2) rules must be in writing and promulgated (3) homeowners can exercise a referendum right in order to repeal rules. In other words, it establishes the principle -- without saying so -- that rulemaking is a political process and not the "rational" process that Nahrstedt presumes.

The sponsor of AB 512 was the California Law Revision Commission. You can come to your own conclusions about whether the court took this fact into consideration as well.

The Congress of California Seniors succeeded in getting AB 512 amended so that the original timetable for homeowners to respond to new rules proposed by the board was extended from 15 to 60 days. We also got it amended to make clear that boards could not deny homeowners access to membership records in order to organize a referendum, i.e. that access to records was a legitimate "member's interest" as defined in current California law.

Marjorie Murray
Chief Legislative Advocate/CID Housing
Congress of California Seniors