California Supreme Court takes case on state worker furloughs

Sacramento Bee ^ | 5/21/10 | Jon Ortiz

[SmithL]

California's highest court has jumped into the middle of the legal fight over state worker furloughs, a move that could speed up resolving whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger legally exercised his authority when furloughing more than 200,000 state workers last year.

The state Supreme Court ordered union and government attorneys to argue a case that Schwarzenegger has twice lost, even though, technically speaking, no one had asked the court to review the matter.

"The court directs the parties to serve and file briefs addressing the following issue: Does the governor have the authority to furlough the state employees at issue in this case by executive order?" said the order signed this week by all seven Supreme Court justices.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear called it "very rare" that the high court takes a case without a formal appeal and said Thursday evening the administration welcomes the debate.

"We have believed from the beginning that the governor has the authority to furlough and we're pleased that the court will review this case," McLear said.

The order was something of a legal whipsaw.

[WayneS]

The CA supreme court will probably rule that it is okay to furlough state employees as long as they are paid their full salaries, plus overtime for additional hours NOT worked, plus full benefits, throughout the duration of any furlough periods.

;-)

[Navy Patriot]

Considering they weren't asked to rule, this may be a jackboot court attempt to save the far left CA state government.

No furloughs means mass firings or bankruptcy.

Mass firings will cripple thug public employee unions, but the Marxist government will survive. Bankruptcy (Federal receivership) will destroy the unions and Marxist bureaucrats.

Furloughs will save and retain power for ALL the bad guys in the state but the unions don't want to take the tiny cut, they rule with an iron fist.

The CA supremes may force furloughs to save the CA government Marxist tyranny, unions and their own power.

[Lancey Howard]

Considering they weren't asked to rule, this may be a jackboot court attempt to save the far left CA state government.

My first thought exactly.

[paul51]

let me try and guess how someone on the public payroll will rule on this

[John Jorsett]

My question is, why did the SC have to demand the case itself? I’d have thought the governor’s team would have brought it there the first second that they could.

[John Jorsett]

Considering they weren't asked to rule, this may be a jackboot court attempt to save the far left CA state government.

Since lower courts had already ruled against Schwarzenegger, if the SC wanted to tank the issue they could have just waited around until somebody appealed those rulings, denied review, and been done with it. This sounds like they're trying to accelerate the process, which I find mildly encouraging.

[SmithL]

My question is, why did the SC have to demand the case itself? I’d have thought the governor’s team would have brought it there the first second that they could.

This has been bizarre from the beginning. There are a whole bunch of furlough lawsuits currently making their way through the system. Most haven't even been tried yet, and others are still in the appeals process at a lower level.

Schwarzenegger tried to get the Supreme Court involved earlier to at least consolidate the suits. At that time, the Court seemed to be in no hurry to get them, and refused to get involved.

Now they're asking for the cases?