BILL ANALYSIS
ACA 15
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Date of Hearing: April 30, 2002
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, REAPPORTIONMENT AND
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
John Longville, Chair
ACA 15 (Wayne) - As Amended: April 2, 2002
SUBJECT : Court consolidation.
SUMMARY : Deletes obsolete references to the municipal courts
in the California Constitution.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides for the division of each county into municipal court
districts.
2)Permits a county to consolidate the operations of municipal
and superior courts upon a majority vote of the superior court
judges and a majority vote of the municipal court judges in
the county.
3)Provides that the Legislature, by a two-thirds vote of each
house, may submit to the voters an amendment or revision of
the Constitution. Provides that such an amendment or revision
shall be effective if approved by a majority of electors.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the sponsor, the California
Law Revision Commission, this Assembly Constitutional
Amendment implements the Commission's proposals for revising
the California Constitution to reflect the elimination of the
municipal courts from the trial court structure in California.
This amendment would delete all references to the municipal
courts from the California Constitution.
2)Article VI, Section 23 Sunset : This measure amends and
repeals a number of provisions in the California Constitution
that reference municipal courts, but provides that section 23
of Article VI of the Constitution shall be repealed on January
1, 2007. This specific section of the constitution
establishes transitional provisions governing the unification
ACA 15
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of municipal and superior courts, and must remain in effect
despite the fact that all municipal courts have been
eliminated. These provisions will no longer be needed by the
repeal date.
3)Previous Legislation : SCA 4 (Lockyer), Res. Chapter 36,
Statutes of 1996, provided for the consolidation of superior
courts and municipal courts in a county upon approval by
majority of superior court judges and of municipal court
judges in that county. That constitutional amendment was
approved by the voters at the June 2, 1998 election with 64.5%
of the vote. Since approval of the amendment, all counties
have elected to consolidate the operations of superior courts
and municipal courts, and trial court unification was
completed on February 8, 2001.
4)Related Legislation : SCA 14 (Burton), pending in the Senate
Judiciary Committee, proposes changes to sections 1, 5, 8, and
15 of Article VI of the Constitution that are identical to the
changes proposed to those sections in this measure. SCA 14
does not make changes proposed by this measure to sections 6,
10, 16, and 23 of Article VI of the Constitution.
5)Double Referral : This measure was approved by the Assembly
Judiciary Committee by a vote of 12-0.
6)Approval by Voters : As a constitutional amendment, this
measure will need voter approval to take effect.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Law Revision Commission (Sponsor)
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E., R. & C. A. / (916)
319-2094