Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinions in Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Association v. Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association, which was on the early-May calendar, and People v. Henderson, which was argued in late-May. (Briefs here (lots of briefs) and here; oral argument videos here and here.)
The Alameda County decision is a much anticipated one about public entities’ ability to scale back their pension obligations. It includes the issue whether statutory amendments to the County Employees’ Retirement Law (Gov. Code, § 31450 et seq.) made by the Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013 (Gov. Code, § 7522 et seq.) reduced the scope of the pre-existing definition of pensionable compensation and thereby impaired employees’ vested rights protected by the contracts clauses of the state and federal Constitutions. The court granted review in March 2018. (Related: here and here.)
Henderson is an automatic direct appeal from a May 2001 judgment of death. The court’s website does not list issues for such cases, but, along with its oral argument notice, the court told counsel to be prepared to address “whether the trial court erroneously admitted into evidence Mr. Henderson’s statements to the police which had been obtained in violation of his rights protected by Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 and Edwards v. Arizona (1981) 451 U.S. 477.” Counsel was appointed in August 2006. Initial briefing was completed in July 2014.
The opinions can be viewed tomorrow starting at 10:00 a.m.
