Court Opinion

ID: 9797331
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 04:18:24.846171+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:54:27.634023
License: Public Domain

*503MOSK, J.
—I concur in the result and much of the reasoning of the majority opinion. I write separately to articulate a somewhat different view of the separation of powers issue.
As the majority correctly recognize, the role that courts play in the add-on procedures of Penal Code section 12276.5 is “essentially adjudicatory.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 492.) Yet the majority’s extensive discussion of cases involving the judiciary’s performance of extrajudicial functions obscures this point. To my mind, the role the court is being asked to play in section 12276.5 is the traditional one of judicially reviewing whether administrative regulations comply with a statute, and there is therefore no real separation of powers issue.
Typically, quasi-legislative administrative regulations are reviewed via a writ of mandate under Code of Civil Procedure section 1085. (See Western States Petroleum Assn. v. Superior Court (1995) 9 Cal.4th 559, 567 [38 Cal.Rptr.2d 139, 888 P.2d 1268].) In this case, the Attorney General is for all intents and purposes promulgating a regulation pursuant to the very specific guidelines of Penal Code section 12276.5. The Legislature could have simply prescribed procedures by which the Attorney General would issue the regulations, and allow the challenge of the regulations through the normal writ of mandate procedures. It chose instead to use an alternate procedure for judicial review, one that occurs before the regulation can take effect. This procedure also places the burden on the government to prove the validity of the regulation rather than, in the usual writ of mandate proceedings, placing the burden on the one challenging the regulation to prove an abuse of discretion. (Western States Petroleum, supra, 9 Cal.4th at p. 568.) Although this form of judicial review is unconventional, it is not unconstitutional. Indeed, the judicial review prescribed by section 12276.5 is more protective of the individual’s right to be free of overreaching government regulations than is conventional judicial review. Therefore, cases cited by plaintiffs regarding the delegation to the judiciary of extrajudicial functions (see, e.g., Mistretta v. United States (1989) 488 U.S. 361 [109 S.Ct. 647, 102 L.Ed.2d 714]) are simply inapposite.
For this reason, I agree that Penal Code section 12276.5 does not violate the constitutional separation of powers.
Werdegar, J., concurred.