Raven v. Deukmejian

Raven v. Deukmejian (1990) 52 Cal.3d 336, concerned the "Crime Victims Justice Reform Act" (Prop. 115, approved by the voters in June 1990). The court concluded that the following provision constituted a qualitative constitutional revision and was therefore invalid: "certain enumerated criminal law rights shall be construed consistently with the United States Constitution, and shall not be construed to afford greater rights to criminal or juvenile defendants than afforded by the federal Constitution." (Raven, at pp. 342-343.) The high court reasoned that the enactment effected a far-reaching change in the nature of basic government because it "would vest all judicial interpretive power, as to fundamental criminal defense rights, in the United States Supreme Court. From a qualitative standpoint, the effect of Proposition 115 is devastating." (Raven, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 352.) "California courts in criminal cases would no longer have authority to interpret the state Constitution in a manner more protective of defendants' rights than extended by the federal Constitution, as construed by the United States Supreme Court." (Ibid.) "Proposition 115 not only unduly restricts judicial power, but it does so in a way which severely limits the independent force and effect of the California Constitution." (Id. at p. 353.) Proposition 115 "substantially alters the preexisting constitutional scheme or framework heretofore extensively and repeatedly used by courts in interpreting and enforcing state constitutional protections. It directly contradicts the well-established jurisprudential principle that, 'The judiciary, from the very nature of its powers and means given it by the Constitution, must possess the right to construe the Constitution in the last resort ... .' " (Raven, at p. 354.) The provision "vests a critical portion of state judicial power in the United States Supreme Court, certainly a fundamental change in our preexisting governmental plan." (Id. at p. 355.)