Supreme Court of California

Welfare and Institutions Code section 602, which purports to give state courts jurisdiction to declare any juvenile who "violates any law ... of the United States" a ward of the court, is not preempted by: 1) the U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause; 2) 18 U.S.C. section 3231, which grants federal courts "original jurisdiction, exclusive of the courts of the States, of all offenses against the laws of the United States"; or 3) any other provision of federal law.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/23/2009
• Published 01/23/2009

Judges

• WERDEGAR, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Kurt David Hermansen, under appointment by the Supreme Court, San Diego, for Defendant and Appellant., Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Lise Jacobsen and Steve Oetting, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.