I see what they are saying. The Calif Constitution requires an “Appelate” court to have ruled it’s unconstitutional. Otherwise the California Executive has no authority to treat it as unconstitutional. It’s insufficient under the California Consitution for a District court to rule it unconstitutional.
Therefore if California officials don’t appeal the District Court’s ruling and get an appellate court ruling, the officials will violate the California Constitution by accepting the District Court’s ruling.
It sets up an interesting conflict of authority. One I think the District Court would win.
Californians would have grounds for impeachment for failure to seek an appellate court ruling. Unfortunately That and a quarter won’t get them a cup of coffee.
Well, the problem is that if the State of California is able to ignore the decisions of U.S. District Courts, then why should the State even show up to defend a claim that a state law is unconstitutional? Since the case will never get to a federal appellate court, the State of California could go on doing anything it wants so long as it never appeals to an appellate court.