County of San Diego, Plaintiffs and Appellants v. Commission on State Mandates, Defendants and Respondents.

Summary

The court held that Proposition 83's technical reenactment of statutory provisions governing sexually violent predator proceedings did not, by itself, convert existing state mandates into voter-imposed mandates or eliminate the State's reimbursement obligation. It rejected the Commission's additional theory that duties required by due process were necessarily ballot-measure duties because the underlying civil-commitment program was imposed by state law, not federal law. The court remanded for the Commission to determine whether Proposition 83's expanded definition of a sexually violent predator changed the reimbursable mandate, including by imposing incremental duties on counties.