I defy you to find a Court of Appeal opinion that -- as here -- disagrees with the unanimous view of multiple other panels in the Court of Appeal, in a high-profile dispute, in an opinion that itself is only six (double-spaced) pages long.
Wow. That's short.
Not that Justice Yegan needs to do more. He doesn't. There are dissents in those other Court of Appeal decisions. And he things those dissents are right, for the reasons they express. It doesn't take a huge number of pages to say so. No need to gild the lily.
Plus, there's zero doubt that the California Supreme Court is going to take up this case. Justice Yegan strikes down Senate Bill 1391 (which bars prosecutors from asking to try minors as adults in various criminal cases) as fatally inconsistent with Proposition 57 (which allows minor to be tried as adults in only limited settings). That's an important and recurring issue, and potentially adds (or subtracts) a ton of time for various criminal defendants. Given the split in the Court of Appeal, it's pretty much certain that the California Supreme Court will step in.
So why write something incredibly long when, in short order, the only thing that readers are going to care about anyway is the controlling decision from the Supreme Court.
Short opinion. Super important. Super temporary.
