In late May, the state Supreme Court granted Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s request to hear one of the appeals he filed in response to a series of decisions made earlier this year; specifically the Supreme Court will review a Superior Court judge’s decision regarding the furloughing of 500 state attorneys. That decision said that furloughing attorneys paid from sources other than the state fund was illegal; the same Superior Court judge handed down the same decision in a similar case filed by UAPD. The Supreme Court’s decision to hear Schwarzenegger’s appeal of the attorney case is important, as it could ultimately determine the legality of furloughs for all state employees, including doctors paid from non-state fund sources and those paid from the state fund. At stake now is the issue of back-pay, as unions including UAPD are fighting to have state employees reimbursed for the money lost to furloughs.
