Department of Mental Hygiene v. Kirchner

[587]

THE COURT:

Memorandum Opinion In re Jurisdictional Clarification of Ground of Rulng Pursuant to Mandate by United States Supreme Court on Petition for Writ of Certiorari.

The Supreme Court of the United States on March-8, 1965, issued the following “judgment and mandate”:

“The judgment of the Supreme Court of California is vacated and the cause remanded to that court for such further proceedings as may be appropriate under state law.”

(Department of Mental Hygiene

v.

Kirchner

(Mar. 8, 1965, No. 111) 380 U.S. 194 [85 S.Ct. 871, 13 L.Ed.2d 753].)

Preceding and explanatory of the quoted order are the statements hereinafter excerpted:

“The California Supreme Court did not state whether its holding was based on the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States or the equivalent provision of the California Constitution, or both. . . . [380 U.S. 196.]

“An examination of the opinion of the California Supreme Court . . . does not indicate whether that court relied on the State Constitution alone, the Federal Constitution alone, or both; and we would have jurisdiction to review only if the federal ground had been the

sole

basis for the decision, or the State Constitution was interpreted under what the state court deemed the compulsion of the Federal Constitution. . . . [380 U.S. 198.]

‘‘ [W] e cannot say with the requisite certainty that the California judgment rested

solely

on the Fourteenth Amendment, or, amounting to the same thing, that in striking the statute down under the State Constitution the court below acted under what it conceived to be the compulsion of the Federal Constitution [citation]; one or the other determination would be necessary to our exercising jurisdiction. . . . [B]ecause of California law, we cannot hold the case on our calendar until the parties submit a clarifying certificate from the California Supreme Court, see