Friday, September 3, 2010
Page 3
S.C. to Broadcast Oral Arguments in Furlough Cases
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The California Supreme Court said yesterday that it will broadcast oral arguments Wednesday on television and on the Internet involving cases challenging the governor’s authority to furlough state employees and to use his veto power to reduce budget appropriations.
Arguments in the first case, Professional Engineers in California Government v. Schwarzenegger, S183411, are set to take place from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. They will be followed by arguments in St. John’s Well Child and Family Center v. Schwarzenegger, S181760, from 10:30 a.m. to noon.
The California Channel, a public affairs cable television network, will broadcast the arguments live on cable television and on its website, www.calchannel.com. It will also provide archived broadcasts of the arguments on its website.
The arguments will be part of the court’s oral argument calendar session set to take place Tuesday and Wednesday in the Supreme Court Courtroom on the Fourth Floor of the Earl Warren Building in San Francisco.
In Professional Engineers, the justices are slated to consider whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had authority on Dec. 19, 2008 to unilaterally impose by executive order a mandatory two-day-a-month unpaid furlough for state employees. They will also hear arguments on whether the Legislature’s February 2009 enactment of the revised Budget Act of 2008 and the initial Budget Act of 2009 affected the validity of the executive order or the remedy that the employee organizations may be entitled to obtain.
St. John’s presents the issue whether the governor’s line item veto power “to reduce or eliminate one or more items of appropriation”—set forth in Article IV, Sec. 10(e) of the California Constitution—applies to provisions in a mid-year emergency bill that reduces appropriation amounts of a previously enacted budget bill.
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