Justice Scalia voices uncommon dissent in California prison ruling

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Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, Calif., is surrounded by razor wire, tall fences and towers manned by guards with rifles. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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A tour at Pelican Bay begins with a briefing about the dangers of prison life and a show-and-tell that includes examples of the prisoner-made weapons. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Prison officials hold an X-ray negative of a weapon that a prisoner was trying to conceal inside his body at Pelican Bay. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Pelican Bay State Prison inmate Jeremy Beasley, 39, a member of the Nazi Low-Riders and then elevated to the Aryan Brotherhood, shows his tattoos. At Pelican Bay since 1998, Beasley went to prison on a life sentence for murder and has since tried to kill another inmate and assaulted a guard. He agreed to debrief in order to be released from the security housing unit -- known as the SHU. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Pelican Bay State Prison inmate Javier Zubiate, a lieutenant of Nuestra Familia, is a convicted killer serving time in the SHU. Zubiate agreed to debrief to provide evidence on other gang members in order to be released from the SHU. Zubiate was also told he would receive medical treatment for an eye condition. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Another view of Zubiate. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Zubiate is led back to his pod by a guard. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Javier Zubiate is accompanied by a guard. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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The concrete recreation area offers a place for controlled and monitored exercise. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Inmate Javier Zubiate stands in the concrete recreation area. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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A guard watches inmate Javier Zubiate in the SHU. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Inmates in Unit B at Pelican Bay State Prison exercise and talk in the yard. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Pelican Bay inmates move from one spot in the yard to another during an exercise period. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Warden Greg Lewis, center, walks around Pelican Bay State Prison. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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A sign warns inmates, staff and visitors that this portion of fencing at Pelican Bay State Prison is electrified. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Razor wire and guard towers encircle Pelican Bay State Prison. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

By Evan Halper and Paige St. John

Aug. 2, 2013 1:18 PM PT

WASHINGTON -- Not all the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court were in agreement with the decision Friday that will force California to remove more than 9,000 inmates from its overcrowded prisons by the end of the year.

Though the court’s ideological differences are well known, it is unusual for the justices to write a dissent on procedural matters such as California’s request for a stay of an order from a panel of federal judges.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy initially received the petition as the justice who oversees the 9th Circuit. But Kennedy referred Gov. Jerry Brown’s request for a stay to the entire high court, and it ultimately rejected it 6-3. Justice Antonin Scalia penned a sharply worded dissent, which Justice Clarence Thomas also signed.

Scalia wrote that he does not believe the federal courts have the authority to order California to remove thousands of inmates from its prison system.

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“California must now release upon the public nearly 10,000 inmates convicted of serious crimes -- about 1,000 for every city larger than Santa Ana,” he wrote. The order, he wrote, goes “beyond the power of the courts.”

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. also joined the minority, but he did not sign the written dissent.

Attorneys for inmates are hopeful that Friday’s high court order signals that the state has run out of options for avoiding the prison population caps. They had expected Kennedy to make the ruling himself. But instead, the entire court weighed in after state attorneys filed extensive legal briefs seeking the stay.

“I think the governor has played this out now,” said Michael Bien, the lead lawyer in one of two federal lawsuits that triggered the prison release order.

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evan.halper@latimes.com

Twitter: @evanhalper

paige.st.john@latimes.com

Twitter: @paigestjohn