People v. Superior Court

The People seek a writ of prohibition to restrain the superior court from dismissing a narcotics prosecution after the court sustained the People’s claim of privilege against harmful disclosure of official information in the files of the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.

The facts will possess heightened significance against the backdrop of the governing statutes. Evidence Code section 1040 establishes a governmental privilege barring evidence of official information whose disclosure is against the public interest. The privilege is conditional in the sense that the court must weigh the necessity for preserving the confidentiality of the information against the necessity for disclosure in the interest' of justice. (See Witkin, Cal. Evidence (2d ed. 1966) §§ 865-867.) A procedure for judicial inquiry is supplied by Evidence Code section 915, subdivision (b), which provides for a hearing in the judge’s chambers attended only by the judge and representatives of the public agency asserting the privilege. In order to protect the interests of an accused person where the government’s claim of privilege is sustained, Evidence Code section 1042, subdivision (a), directs the…