Court Opinion

ID: 9548052
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:56:48.878434+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:18:25.887341
License: Public Domain

CLARK, J., Dissenting.
Under this court’s decision of People v. Fioritto (1968) 68 Cal.2d 714 [68 Cal.Rptr. 817, 441 P.2d 625], defendant’s confession is arguably inadmissible. But under the United States Supreme Court’s more recent decision of Michigan v. Mosley (1975) 423 U.S. 96 [46 L.Ed.2d 313, 96 S.Ct. 321], defendant’s confession is admissible. The question presented therefore is whether in light of Mosley we shall continue to adhere to Fioritto.
The majority reaffirm Fioritto on the following ground. “The construction of a provision of the California Constitution remains a matter of California law regardless of the narrower manner in which decisions of the United States Supreme Court may interpret provisions of the federal Constitution. Respect for our Constitution as ‘a document of independent force’ (Brisendine, at pp. 549-550 of 13 Cal.3d) forbids us to abandon settled applications of its terms every time changes are announced in the interpretation of the federal charter. Indeed our Constitution expressly declares that ‘Rights guaranteed by this Constitution are not dependent on those guaranteed by the United States Constitution.’ (Cal. Const., art. I, § 24.)” (Ante, pp. 247-248.)
The short answer to this argument is that Fioritto was not decided under the California Constitution; rather, it was based on this court’s understanding of the principles announced in Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 [16 L.Ed.2d 694, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 10 A.L.R.3d 974], a United *253States Supreme Court decision interpreting the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.1 The California Constitution was not even mentioned in Fioritto.
The United States Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of the limits of its own decisions. Now that the high court has declared a confession obtained under the circumstances of this case admissible under Miranda, honesty—analytical and ordinary—compels us to overrule Fioritto to the extent it conflicts with Mosley. To say that “[r]espect for our Constitution as ‘a document of independent force’ ” forbids us to depart from Fioritto when our Constitution in fact had no part in that decision is less than honest. The majority’s curious response to this objection is that the same might be said of most of the decisions on which they rely. (Ante, p. 247.) Indeed, the same not only might be, but has been said. (See, e.g., Allen v. Superior Court (1976) 18 Cal.3d 520, 533-537 [134 Cal.Rptr. 774, 557 P.2d 65] (Clark, J., dis.).)
But what of article I, section 24 of the California Constitution, declaring that “Rights guaranteed by this Constitution are not dependent upon those guaranteed by the United States Constitution?” The majority contend this section compels us to interpret provisions of our Constitution without regard to the United States Supreme Court’s interpretations of identical provisions in the federal Constitution. For the reasons expressed in my dissenting opinion in People v. Norman (1975) 14 Cal.3d 929, 940-942 [123 Cal.Rptr. 109, 538 P.2d 237], I still maintain that unless its text or history support a broader construction, a state constitutional provision should be interpreted as affording a criminal defendant no greater right than the parallel provision of the federal Constitution. (See, e.g., People v. Maher (1976) 17 Cal.3d 196, 204 [130 Cal.Rptr. 508, 550 P.2d 1044] (Clark, J., dis.).)
On the other hand, were the majority consistent in rejecting not only those high court decisions with which they disagree but also those with which they agree, I might subscribe to their approach. Indeed, I can conceive of no more salutaxy exercise than examining our state Constitu*254tion afresh, without regard to the gloss put upon the federal Constitution by the United States Supreme Court. But then we would have to disregard not only Mosley, but also Miranda, and even Weeks v. United States (1914) 232 U.S. 383 [58 L.Ed. 652, 34 S.Ct. 341].2 We would have to return to square one and decide this case by asking ourselves—consistent with our oath of office—not what the Warren Court would have done, but what the Founders of our Constitution would have us do. But instead the shell game continues. (See People v. Ramey (1976) 16 Cal.3d 263, 277 [127 Cal.Rptr. 629, 545 P.2d 1333] (Clark, J., dis.).)
Raoul Berger reminds us that “[a] common historicist fallacy is to import our twentieth-century conceptions into the minds of the Founders.” (Government by Judiciary: The Transformation of the Fourteenth Amendment (1977) p. 306.) The majority’s “new states’ rights” doctrine is a clear example of this fallacy—importing the high court’s social philosophy of the 1960s into our own Constitution of a century ago.
The judgment should be affirmed.
RICHARDSON, J.
I agree with the dissent of Justice Clark that the
judgment should be affirmed. As I expressed in an earlier case, which also involved an extension of the doctrines of Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 [16 L.Ed.2d 694, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 10 A.L.R.3d 974], “In my view, in the absence of very strong countervailing circumstances we should defer to the leadership of the nation’s highest court in its interpretation of nearly identical constitutional language, rather than attempt to create a separate echelon of state constitutional interpretations to which we will advert whenever a majority of this court differ from a particular high court interpretation.” (People v. Disbrow (1976) 16 Cal.3d 101, 119 [127 Cal.Rptr. 360, 545 P.2d 272] [dis. opn.].)

There can be no serious dispute on this point. The opening paragraph of Fioritto sets the tone for the entire opinion when, after reciting the defendant’s conviction for burglary, it states “At trial the People introduced into evidence a confession signed by defendant, and defendant contends that this confession was elicited under circumstances that were violative of the standards enunciated by the United States Supreme Court in Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 [16 L.Ed.2d 694, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 10 A.L.R.3d 974], We conclude that under the explicit directives of Miranda defendant’s confession was inadmissible, and accordingly the judgment must be reversed.” (68 Cal.2d at p. 716.)

In People v. Cahan (1955) 44 Cal.2d 434 [282 P.2d 905, 50 A.L.R.2d 513] this court adopted the exclusionary rule, the so-called Weeks doctrine, not as a matter of state constitutional law, but as a judicially declared rule of evidence. (Id., at p. 442.)