Court Opinion

ID: 9729339
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:32:26.854523+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:57.090810
License: Public Domain

ALMA L. LÓPEZ, Justice,
concurring.
Although the majority opinion is correct under the law, I concur in the judgment only, for the following reasons.
The constitutions of this state and the United States guarantee all citizens certain rights. Those rights are guaranteed to all citizens, not just citizens who society deems should have those rights. If all citizens are to receive their respective rights, we must implement methods which will assure those incarcerated of at least *270the same safeguards of constitutional rights as the general public. For those who are incarcerated, but still have a right to avail themselves of the judicial system, we should provide a United States mail receptacle at the site of incarceration. How difficult would it be, in this era of advanced technology, to develop a method to time and date stamp correspondence when it is deposited into a prison mail receptacle, and then forward the mail to the United States mail receptacle, thereby providing proof that a litigant complied with the necessary time lines? Perhaps such a system would require the depositor to time-date stamp his own correspondence prior to depositing it into the mail receptacle. Such a simple approach could have permitted this appeal to proceed on its merits, enabling the appellant to assert his right of appeal.