Friday, November 27, 2009

People v. Scott (Cal. Ct. App. - Nov. 24, 2009)

No opinions today from anyone. But lest us working stiffs be deprived, here's something from a couple days ago. To get one's blood boiling notwithstanding turkey-induced sleepiness.

It's one thing to call another opinion by the Court of Appeal wrongly decided. You see that on occasion. People disagree about the merits sometime.

It's another thing -- and it happens less often -- to call another opinion confusing and poorly written. Which is what Justice Butz essentially says here about an earlier opinion by Justice Ashmann-Gerst.

Or at least that's how I read the second paragraph of the opinion, and well as the follow-on discussion in Section C.

Justice Butz says it more nicely than I have, of course. Calling the holding of Justice Ashmann-Gerst's opinion "difficult to discern." But particularly given what comes subsequently, I think it's not "difficult to discern" the full panoply of Justice Butz's views about the prior opinion.