PJLC Petitions the CA Supreme Court to Hear OC Gang Injunction Case

The California Court of Appeals in Santa Ana has denied an appeal by one of the PJLC’s clients where we argued that the OCDA’s gang injunction procedure is unconstitutional. Currently, the OCDA wins its injunctions by suing gangs and not individual people, as if a gang was an organization with a clearly defined purpose, membership, and decision-making process. The OCDA does this, despite the impossibility of a gang ever appearing in court to defend itself and despite laws which state only organizations formed for a lawful purpose may be sued this way. Then, once the OCDA “wins” their lawsuit without opposition, the OCDA adds named people to the injunction through a process entirely of the OCDA’s own invention.

Now that the Court of Appeals has made their decision, the PJLC will ask the California Supreme Court to take the case and reverse the Court of Appeals. While the California Supreme Court only hears 3% of the cases for which it receives petitions, we hope the Court will take this case since the liberties of thousands of people across California turn on this decision.

Update: The California Supreme Court decided not to hear the case but also denied the DA's request to publish the case. The decision not to publish the case means that the lower court's decision is not binding against anyone else. PJLC continues to represent our client in the case and continues to fight not just for his civil rights, but for an end to all gang injunctions.