Wednesday, May 15, 2024

People v. Ellis (Cal. Ct. App. - May 15, 2024)

This opinion by Justice Yegan contains less than 425 words. It is a page and a half long. It doesn't contain a single case citation. The briefs themselves were almost assuredly many multiples of this length -- and likely depth.

The opinion contains eight different alleged reasons for affirming the decision below. All but the last of these consists of but a single sentence. (The final reason is four sentences: That smuggling marijuana in prison is a serious crime.) The longest of these reasons entails 28 words; the shortest, a mere four words.

I would leave dispositions like this one unpublished.

(Understanding, of course, that justices get to decide for themselves whether their opinions allegedly meet the standards for publication established by Rule 8.1105(c), and that different justices sometimes have markedly different subjective tastes in this regard.)