California IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : State Court Test for Prop. 187 Is Rejected

A federal district judge has rejected state efforts to have Proposition 187 declared constitutional under state law. Instead, U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen has decided to send a lawsuit filed on behalf of Gov. Pete Wilson to federal court in Los Angeles, where it presumably will be incorporated into a case scheduled for trial in September to determine the federal constitutionality of the illegal immigration initiative. Several weeks after voters approved the ballot measure in November, U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction halting its enforcement before a trial. State officials reacted by filing suit in a San Francisco state court asking that the measure’s constitutionality be decided there first. The matter, however, was subsequently transferred to federal court in San Francisco, where Jensen denied a state request to send the suit back to state court. Instead, it was announced Monday that he had granted a motion to send the suit to Los Angeles.