Under rule 8.548(a), California Rules of Court, a Federal Court of Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court, or the court of last resort of another state may ask the California Supreme Court to answer a question of California law where “(1) The decision could determine the outcome of a matter pending in the requesting court; and (2) There is no controlling precedent.” Most lawyers are already familiar with this procedure, at least in principle.
What gives a special appellate twist to Fantasyland Video v. County of San Diego, case no. 05-56026 (August 7, 2007) is that the Ninth Circuit asks the California Supreme Court to specify the standard of review to apply in the case. Plaintiff, operator of an adult “arcade, bookstore, novelty shop, and video store,” challenged a county ordinance that required adult businesses to close between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. The question certified by the Ninth Circuit is very specific:
Under the California Constitution’s liberty of speech clause, should we review the constitutionality of an ordinance that sets closing times for adult entertainment establishments under strict scrutiny, intermediate scrutiny, or some other standard?
Another thing I like about this request from the Ninth Circuit is that it doesn’t claim there are no California cases on point. It says the most relevant case on the issue is impossible to figure out:
We certify the above question to the Supreme Court of California for an authoritative construction of the most directly relevant opinion on the issue, People v. Glaze, 27 Cal. 3d 841 (1980).
In other words, “Please tell us what the heck you were trying to say in that mess (and in the seemingly inconsistent cases that followed).” But they asked it nicely.
California Appellate Report offers some details on the “frenetic pace” at which the Ninth Circuit has been certifying questions to state supreme courts this year, as well as some tongue-in-cheek commentary on the wisdom of the ordinance challenged in this case.
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