Court Opinion

ID: 9625616
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:45:58.845799+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:12.049433
License: Public Domain

McCOMB, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
I concur that procedural rules for the efficient disposition of petitions for habeas corpus seeking post-conviction relief should be promulgated. I dissent from the holding that the territorial limitations of superior courts were eliminated by the 1966 revision of the Constitution. With no discussion whatever, the majority states that the constitutional history provides persuasive support for its holding. In my opinion the words “in their respective counties” in former section 5 were purposely omitted from present section 10 without any intent to change the substance.
A fundamental principle of construction is to give effect to the intent of the framers of the Constitution and the people in adopting it. (13 Cal.Jur.3d, Constitutional Law, § 36, p. 78.) The framers of the 1966 revision were the 50-60 members of the Constitution Revision Commission created by the Legislature in 1963 as part of a vast project to modernize and update the state’s lengthy, antiquated Constitution. The tone of this objective was set in Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 77 (July 1, 1963.)* The commission’s initial report to the Legislature was the result of an exhaustive two-year study of seven articles of the former Constitution, article-by-article. (See Cal. Const. Rev. Com. Proposed Rev. of the Cal. Const. (Feb. 1966) p. 81 et seq.) Regarding article VI, the commission commented that “Various provisions were deleted as redundant, obsolete, or unnecessary for constitutional treatment. Those provisions that warrant consideration as statutes will be called to the attention of the Legislature.” (P. 82.) “The conversion to statutory form may be advisable for one or more reasons. First the provisions may be so detailed as to have no place in a constitution, which is supposed to set forth the ‘organic law.’ Second the provisions may be of a nature requiring the flexibility that only statutory form can provide.” (P. 102.) “Detailed provisions for jurisdiction [of superior courts in former section 6] were deleted in accord with the Commission’s view that such matters are more appropriate in statutes.” (P. 81.)
*349The section with which we are concerned is former section 5. Eveiy paragraph and sentence was analyzed in detail by the commission and was either “revised and retained in some form,” or was recommended for statutory consideration. (Comparative Sections Table, p. 83.) The sentence granting superior courts and their judges power to issue writs of habeas corpus was “revised and retained in some form,” and the substance thereof is restated in the first paragraph of present section 10 dealing with original jurisdiction. (P. 90.) Nowhere in its report is. there the slightest indication by the commission that revised section 10 was intended to grant unlimited territorial jurisdiction. Language in former sections that vested power in the justices of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal to issue writs of habeas corpus within territorial limits was likewise omitted from present section 10, with the comment; “Deletion of the provisions in existing Sections 4 and 4b concerning the issuance and returnability of writs of habeas corpus was made because the matter can be dealt with by the Legislature under the grant of original jurisdiction.” (Ibid.)
Since article VI was revised, not amended, it is presumed that the commission intended that its revised and restated provisions should have the meaning attributed to them in the earlier document. In the absence of any intent by the commission to alter our construction of former section 5, we should give the language of the revised section 10 the same meaning and effect as we ascribed to the previous constitutional provision. (In re Lavine, 2 Cal.2d 324, 331 [8] [41 P.2d 161, 42 P.2d 311]; 13 Cal.Jur.3d, Constitutional Law, § 50, p. 97.)
The views expressed herein were derived not only from the commission’s comments but from the 1967 Judicial Council Annual Report. (Ch. 3, p. 65 et seq.) The council fully supported the revision of article VI and concluded that the commission “had done an excellent job of removing obsolete language, deleting unnecessary procedural provisions, *350and introducing the constitutional flexibility needed to permit a modem and efficient administration of California’s judicial system.” (P. 65.) “A number of matters previously covered in the Constitution—either by explicit and detailed language in the Constitution itself or by settled case law interpretation of the prior constitutional language—are not treated specifically in the new Judicial Article. Sometimes the subject is included by implication in the broader, more general language used in the new article.” (P. 66.) “Section 10 deals with the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, courts of appeal, and superior courts. It restates in a single provision the substance of matters formerly covered in a number of scattered provisions relating to the original jurisdiction of these courts. . . . The procedure for the exercise of this original jurisdiction is left to promulgation by statutes and mies, but the authority of the named courts to issue writs of habeas corpus is specifically preserved as is the power of any judge of such a court to issue these writs.” (P. 75.) (Italics added.)
The foregoing convinces me that the people of the State of California in adopting the revisions of article VI on November 8, 1966, did not intend to abolish the territorial limitations of superior courts. The omitted verbiage was deemed unnecessary and inappropriate in the constitutional grant of original jurisdiction in habeas corpus proceedings.

The preamble states: “WHEREAS, the Constitution of the State of California through the process of constant amendment has grown to be bad in form, inconsistent in many respects, filled with unnecessary detail, and replete with matter which might more properly be contained in the statutory law of the State; and
“WHEREAS, The State Constitution, adopted in 1879, has grown from a document of *349some 16,000 words to an instrument exceeding 70,000 words in length, as contrasted with the Federal Constitution of about 7,500 words; and
“WHEREAS, a constitution should contain only the basic and fundamental law of a state, rather than being filled with detailed and statutory material; and
“WHEREAS, The people of the State of California did approve at the 1962 general election Proposition 7, which amended Article XVIII, Section 1 of the State Constitution to permit the Legislature to propose revisions of the Constitution, in addition to its power to propose amendments thereto; and
“WHEREAS, These facts point to a very real need for revision of the State Constitution, to make it a truly organic and basic guarantee of rights, and indicate the manner in which such revision may be obtained . . . .” (Stats. 1963 (Reg. Sess.) res. ch. 181, pp. 4973-4974.)