Court Opinion

ID: 9542090
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:31:07.45134+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:02:43.365939
License: Public Domain

NEWMAN, J., Concurring.
Article I, section 17 of. the California Constitution commands that “excessive fines” not be imposed. In my view those two words justify reversal of the judgment here. There is ample reason for concluding that the constitutional prohibition covers civil as well as criminal fines.
I do not read the opinions cited by the majority here (e.g., Western Air Lines, Younger, Jayhill, and Walsh) as harbingers of a disinterred substantive-due-process review. Because of article I, section 17 of the California Constitution such a review indeed seems inappropriate in this case. Since 1937 “the [United States Supreme] Court’s abandonment of *408‘substantive due process’ review over economic regulation has been constant and unequivocal.” Freund et al., Constitutional Law (4th ed. 1977) page 1094.