On May 20, the California Supreme Court refused to hear Fuller v Bowen, which was filed by a candidate for the legislature in February 2010. The candidate, Heidi Fuller, is on the Republican primary ballot. She had been attempting to get a court ruling that the California Constitution, which bars candidates for the legislature if they have not lived in the district a year before the general election, should be enforced.
One of her opponents, who is already a state legislator, moved into the district he is running in on December 31, 2009, less than a year before the November 2, 2010 election. There is no dispute or ambiguity about that. The Attorney General and the Secretary of State do not enforce the state constitutional provision because they believe that it violates the U.S. Constitution. In the current case, the Superior Court agreed with Fuller that courts have jurisdiction to enforce the California Constitution, but he also ruled that the residency requirement in the California Constitution violates the U.S. Constitution. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld residency durational requirements, most notably in Sununu v Stark, which summarily affirmed a 3-judge U.S. District Court decision upholding a seven year residency requirement.
Fuller will ask for U.S. Supreme Court review.
