At its Wednesday conference, the Supreme Court actions of note included:
- Using a deferential standard of review, the court approved four more gubernatorial clemency recommendation requests: for Viet Quoc Hong to pardon him for vehicle theft, possession of a controlled substance, using or being under the influence of a controlled substance, and driving with a suspended license; for Arturo Guerrero to commute his sentence of 10 years for robbery plus two 5-year prior prison term enhancements; and for Kenneth Jordan to commute two consecutive sentences of life without parole for two murders, plus an additional 17 years for two counts of robbery, firearm enhancements, and a prior felony enhancement. (There have been a number of LWOP clemency recommendation requests.) By our count, this brings the Supreme Court’s backlog of pending gubernatorial clemency recommendation requests down to 23, unless there have been more sent to the court in the last 10 days.
- The granted review in Littlejohn v. Costco Wholesale Corp., but the case is on hold pending a decision in McClain v. Sav-On Drugs, which raises the issue whether a purchaser of products allegedly exempt from sales tax but for which the retailer collected sales tax reimbursement can bring an action to compel the retailer to seek a sales tax refund from the State Board of Equalization and remit the proceeds to purchasers. The court granted review in McClain in June 2017 and it sent its oral argument letter in the fully briefed case two months ago, so argument might (or might not) be coming soon. In Littlejohn, the First District, Division Three, Court of Appeal ruled against the consumer in a published opinion because it determined the case “does not involve allegations of unique circumstances showing the Board has concluded consumers are owed refunds for taxes paid on sales of Ensure.”
- The court also made grant-and-hold orders in five criminal cases. It returned to the Court of Appeal 13 criminal cases that had been grant-and-holds.
- The court denied review in People v. Minchak, but Justice Goodwin Liu recorded a vote to grant. In an unpublished opinion, the Third District affirmed a jury’s verdict that the defendant was sane when he committed a murder, rejecting the defendant’s argument that, as summarized by the court, an instruction “erroneously prevented the jury from considering evidence of his personality disorder in conjunction with his schizophrenia in deciding whether he was capable of distinguishing right from wrong.”
- The court made grant-and-transfer orders in eight criminal cases.
