Impermissible Legislature Interpretation of the Constitution

Section 4 of Article XIV of the California State Constitution states in part that the "Legislature is hereby expressly vested with plenary power, unlimited by any provision of this Constitution, to create, and enforce a complete system of workers' compensation, by appropriate legislation, ... and full provision for vesting power, authority and jurisdiction in an administrative body with all the requisite governmental functions to determine any dispute or matter arising under such legislation, to the end that the administration of such legislation shall accomplish substantial justice in all cases expeditiously, inexpensively, and without incumbrance of any character; all of which matters are expressly declared to be the social public policy of this State, binding upon all departments of the state government.

The same section, next paragraph, more specifically states:

The Legislature is vested with plenary powers, to provide for the settlement of any disputes arising under such legislation by arbitration, or by an industrial accident commission, by the courts, or by either, any, or all of these agencies, either separately or in combination, and may fix and control the method and manner of trial of any such dispute, the rules of evidence and the manner of review of decisions rendered by the tribunal or tribunals designated by it; provided, that all decisions of any such tribunal shall be subject to review by the appellate courts of this State. The Legislature may combine in one statute all the provisions for a complete system of workers' compensation, as herein defined.

The Legislature can not change the Constitution - that is a power vested ONLY to the People of the State of California. And only the Supreme Court of California can interpret the Constitution.

But the drafters of the workers' compensation reform bill (warning - this may not be final draft, as reported in WorkCompCentral the bill remains quite fluid) that has now made it to Assembly Committee, SB 863 (new author: De Leon) have took it upon themselves to INTERPRET the Constitution for us just in case there is a challenge to the bill on constitutional grounds, and the Supreme Court doesn't understand it...

They do this in the last version of the bill that I have access to, dated 8/23/12 6:54 PM, on pages 10 and 11 in SB 863 by making a declaration that the people of the State of California find that the state Constitution doesn't apply to the provisions of the proposed Independent Medical Review system.

Drafters accomplish this by first stating the obvious in paragraph (a) of the declaratory preamble - that in fact the state Constitution provides that workers' compensation legislation shall accomplish substantial justice in all cases expeditiously, inexpensively, and without incumbrance of any character, and that indeed it is expressly declared to be the social public policy of this State. 

I can't argue with that - that is language specifically out of the Constitution.

But then in paragraph (f) of the preamble, drafters go on to state that "the establishment of independent medical review and provision for limited appeal of decisions resulting from independent medical review are a necessary exercise of the Legislature’s plenary power to provide for the settlement of any disputes arising under the workers’ compensation laws of this State and to control the manner of review of such decisions".

In other words, through slight of hand, the Legislature is going to dictate how the Constitution is to be interpreted without dealing with the second paragraph of Section 4 of Article XIV: "that all decisions of any such tribunal shall be subject to review by the appellate courts of this State."

In summary: The California state Constitution specifically requires "all decisions" to be subject to review by the appellate courts. 

"All decisions." Not some, not those only procured by fraud, deceit or clearly erroneous. 

All decisions. There is no provision in the Constitution granting the Legislature the power to limit appeals of decisions resulting from independent medical review.

By the way, confirming that this most recent reform is purely a political play, the California Assembly adopted amendments to Senate Bill 863 on Friday completely along party lines - with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting against.

I find this rather amusing because those who have been most vociferous against SB 863 have been saying that it is worse than the Republican measure given us in 2004 under Governor Schwarzenegger.

Just saying...