A 6-1 ruling from the California Supreme Court on Monday allows Governor Jerry Brown to put his criminal justice reform initiative on the November ballot.
The high court shot down a lower court ruling alleging Brown’s amendments to the measure—which would give judges, rather than prosecutors, the final say on whether juvenile offenders are charged as adults and increase prisoners’ access to good time credits—did not go through the proper public commentary period for amendments.
The state Supremes found the amendments to be “reasonably germane” to Brown’s original initiative.
“There is no question that the changes the proponents made to this initiative measure were, in certain respects, quite extensive,” Justice Carol Corrigan said in the majority opinion. “However, that is their right, so long as the changes are reasonably germane to the original theme, purpose, or subject. The amended measure, like the original, addresses the process for transferring minors to adult court for criminal prosecution, and expands parole suitability review for state prisoners.”
In his solo dissent, Justice Ming Chin stressed the importance of the public comment period to identify and correct flaws in in proposed measures. “We must interpret section 9002, subdivision (b) in a way that makes the review process meaningful, rather than something easily evaded.”
Tomorrow (Wednesday), there will be a joint legislative hearing on the initiative, featuring testimony from proponents Elizabeth Calvin from Human Rights Watch, Frankie Guzman from Nat’l Center for Youth Law, and Probation Chief Mary Butler.
Last month, Brown’s campaign team turned in just under a million signatures, nearly double the 585,407 signatures needed to qualify the initiative for the fall ballot.