Court Opinion

ID: 9790339
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:51:53.804405+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:28.885786
License: Public Domain

LUCAS, C. J., Concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the majority. I write separately, however, to suggest additional grounds for our holding. It is manifest that the Legislature, in providing that probation may be revoked when the court has “reason to believe” revocation is warranted (Pen. Code, § 1203.2, subd. (a)), intended the standard of proof to be no greater than a preponderance of evidence.1 Given this fact, the primary issue *448before us in this case is whether constitutional principles require a higher standard of proof.
The majority correctly holds that they do not, noting that no decision has ever required grounds for revocation to be proved beyond reasonable doubt (see maj. opn., ante, at pp. 441-442), and concluding that proof by preponderance of evidence is sufficient because revocation deprives the probationer only of “conditional liberty properly dependent on observance of special [ ] restrictions.” (Id. at p. 442.) We should also explain why the loss of conditional liberty entailed in revocation of probation does not warrant proof by an intermediate standard. Use of such a standard would not be altogether unprecedented; the United States Supreme Court has held, for example, that due process affords probationers a nonabsolute right to counsel—a protection less stringent than that afforded criminal defendants but greater than that enjoyed by civil litigants. (See Gagnon v. Scarpelli (1973) 411 U.S. 778, 790 [36 L.Ed.2d 656, 666, 93 S.Ct. 1756].) The question here is whether a similar intermediate rule should govern the standard of proof in probation revocation hearings. None of the cases discussed by the majority in support of its constitutional analysis addressed, or was called on to decide, this question.
The majority notes, albeit in a different context, one relevant factor in the due process equation: only a small minority of jurisdictions require proof by more than a preponderance of evidence. (See maj. opn., ante, at pp. 446-447.) As the high court has held, “A legislative judgment that is not only consistent with the ‘dominant opinion’ throughout the country but is also in accord with ‘the traditions of our people and our law,’ see Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45, 76 (1905) (Holmes, J., dissenting), is entitled to a powerful presumption of validity when it is challenged under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” (Rivera v. Minnich (1987) 483 U.S. 574, 578 [97 L.Ed.2d 473, 478-479, 107 S.Ct. 3001].) Here, the Legislature has decreed that probation may be revoked if the court has “reason to believe” the probationer has violated one or more conditions of his probation. This judgment, in line with the standard of proof employed by the overwhelming majority of other jurisdictions, is accordingly entitled at least to a presumption of validity.
A probationer’s interest in retaining his conditional liberty, although not to be demeaned, is insufficient to overcome this presumption. The mere fact that a probationer’s liberty interest is “conditional” does not of its own *449weight foreclose application of an intermediate standard of proof; despite its contingent nature, the interest is greater than that generally at issue for the civil litigant. Nevertheless, in practical terms, the fact that revocation of probation affects an interest tied to narrowly tailored restrictions distinguishes the revocation hearing from proceedings at which an intermediate standard applies. In short, the hearing threatens the probationer with a sanction less significant than those at stake in proceedings in which the high court has required proof by clear and convincing evidence. (See, e.g., Santosky v. Kramer (1982) 455 U.S. 745, 753 [71 L.Ed.2d 599, 606, 102 S.Ct. 1388] [termination of parental rights held to threaten “fundamental” liberty interest]; Addington v. Texas (1979) 441 U.S. 418, 425 [60 L.Ed.2d 323, 331, 99 S.Ct. 1804] [civil commitment to mental hospital involves “significant deprivation of liberty”]; Woodby v. Immigration Service (1966) 385 U.S. 276, 285 [17 L.Ed.2d 362, 368-369, 87 S.Ct. 483] [deportation].) Whatever “adverse social consequences” (see Addington, supra, 441 U.S. at p. 426 [60 L.Ed.2d at p. 331]) result from revocation of probation, they are not as stigmatic, permanent, or irreversible as those in regard to which the courts have applied a clear-and-convincing-evidence standard. (See United States v. Sample, supra, 378 F.Supp. 44.)
For these reasons, I concur in the majority’s conclusion that a preponderance-of-evidence standard satisfies the requirements of due process in the probation revocation setting.

In this respect, it may be wondered why we hold that even proof by preponderance of evidence is required. As the majority notes (see maj. opn., ante, p. 446), the federal courts have generally held that probation in the federal system may be revoked if the judge is “reasonably satisfied” that such a step is warranted, and at least two courts have held that this standard is lower than preponderance of evidence. (See United States v. Smith (7th Cir. 1978) 571 F.2d 370, 372; United States ex rel. Pole v. O’Leary (N.D.Ill. 1989) [Dock. No. 88C5411] [“the Illinois statutory scheme requiring that a violation be proved by a preponderance of evidence goes beyond that which is constitutionally required”]; but see United States v. Sample (E.D.Pa. 1974) 378 F.Supp. 44, 50-51 [proof by preponderance of evidence constitutionally required].)
As is suggested by the views of these courts, we arguably should consider here (even though the parties do not raise the question) whether a standard similar to that employed in *448the federal system should also be applied in California as a matter of statutory and constitutional interpretation. For the reasons discussed below, I agree with the majority that due process does not require proof by more than a preponderance of evidence. Dispositive resolution of whether proof by less than such standard is permissible awaits a future case.