Doe

Persons convicted of crimes other than minor traffic offenses are presumptively disqualified from working in licensed community care facilities, which provide care and services to people such as the disabled, the elderly, and foster children. (See generally Health & Saf. Code, §§ 1502, subd. (a), 1522, subd. (c)(3).) The Director of the Department of Social Services has discretion to allow persons convicted of certain offenses to work in community care facilities, although the director has no discretion to grant such a criminal record exemption to persons convicted of specified “nonexemptible” offenses. (See, e.g., § 1522, subd. (g)(1).)

These consolidated appeals arise out of actions against the Department of Social Services and several of its directors (collectively, the Department) challenging the Department’s classification of certain crimes as nonexemptible offenses. Included among offenses considered non-exemptible are “crime[s] against an individual” specified in Penal Code section 667.5, subdivision (c) (hereafter Penal Code section 667.5(c)). (See, e.g., § 1522, subd. (g)(1)(A)(i).) After Proposition 21 passed in 2000, the list of violent felonies in Penal Code…