Court Opinion

ID: 9547395
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:46:49.519508+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:42.794749
License: Public Domain

BURKE, Justice,
dissenting.
This case provides a good example of the risk inherent in the announcement of a decision prior to the issuance of our formal opinion.1 In this instance, the added scrutiny compelled by Justice Moore’s vigorous dissent has convinced me that our previously announced decision was dead wrong.2 Rather than commit a second offense, I prefer to eat my share of the crow now.
If it were possible to do so now, I would vacate our decision sua sponte, and hold the initiative measure invalid, for reasons essentially the same as those expressed by my dissenting colleague, Justice Moore.

. It has been our practice, in cases where there are compelling reasons to do so, to announce our decision prior to the issuance of a formal opinion. The order that was entered in this case is typical: "The judgment of the Superior Court is AFFIRMED. Opinions will follow.” In this particular instance, we were persuaded to announce our decision in such manner because of its importance, to preparations then being made for the 1984 general election.
This is a worthwhile practice in cases requiring an immediate decision, and I do not condemn it. It is, however, a practice that involves a certain amount of risk. As once observed by the late Chief Justice Roger Traynor,
[We] have not found a better test for the solution of a case than its articulation in writing, which is thinking at its hardest. A judge, inevitably preoccupied with the far-reaching effect of an immediate solution as a precedent, often discovers that his tentative views will not jell in the writing. He wrestles with the devil more than once to set forth a sound opinion that will be sufficient unto more than the day.
R. Traynor, Some Open Questions on the Work of State Appellate Courts, 24 U.Chi.L.Rev. 211, 218 (1957).

. Our decision was announced on September 13, 1984. At that time, I joined in the order of the court. See note 1, supra. Justice Moore, as he does now, dissented.