Padilla v. Lever hits Orange County: “City officials are trying to determine whether a petition challenging a San Juan Hills Golf Course housing proposal for older adults and an amendment to the general plan was done correctly. The city was alerted today by the Orange County Registrar of Voters Office because the petition was not translated into Spanish, Assistant City Manager Bill Huber said. He said he wasn’t sure whether the petition needs to be written in a second language.” This uncertainty is terrible for California.
By Thursday, I expect the 9th Circuit will rule on the emergency motion made in the Monterey initiative race (that’s the deadline based on the printing of ballots for the next election). My pro bono amicus letter supporting the initiative proponents is here. Eugene Volokh briefly weighs in on the issue. For more background, here is my December 2005 LA Times oped on the original Ninth Circuit case that caused this mess, Padilla v. Lever (petition for rehearing and suggestion for rehearing en banc pending), and here is Dan Weintraub’s Sacramento Bee column from yesterday.