In an action entitled Frank S. Boggs, Petitioner, v. Fran k C. Jordan, as Secretary of State of the State of California, Respondent [S. F. No. 12,911], post, p. 207 [ 267 Pac. 696 ], there was filed in this court on March 16, 1928, a petition for a writ of mandate to compel the respondent Secretary of State to disregard certain referendum certificates then on file in his office relative to an act of the legislature entitled “An act to amend section seventy-eight and to repeal section ninety of the Political Code, relating to the division of the state into legislative districts and defining and establishing such districts, and to repeal all acts in conflict with this act” (Stats. 1927, p. 1757), and to take no further action with respect to said referendum certificates or proceedings thereunder. An alternative writ of mandate and an order to show cause were thereupon issued by this court and were served upon the respondent Secretary of State. Said re spondent thereupon made answer and return, and the matter came on regularly for hearing before the court in bank on the third day of April, 1928, petitioner and respondent each being represented by respective counsel. At that time certain counsel, among them Henry E. Carter, Esq., sought and obtained permission to file briefs amici curiae for respondent. By agreement of all parties the cause was then ordered by the court to be submitted on briefs. No decision has yet been handed down in said cause, and the matter is now pending for consideration and determination by this court.

On April 12, 1928, there was handed to the clerk of this court a communication written by Ralph Arnold, reading in full as follows:

The clerk placed the communication in the hands of the justices of this court.

’ On the same date there was handed to the clerk of the court, with directions to hand the same to the members of the court, a communication purporting to be “on behalf of the Republican County . Central Committee of San Francisco,” signed by Alfred F. Andrews and Frank C. Tracy, chairman and secretary, respectively, of said Republican County Central Committee, in which said Alfred F. Andrews and Frank C. Tracy, on behalf of said county central committee, protested “against the action Boggs vs. Jordan, Secretary of State,” said communication reading in full as follows:

The manifest purpose of preparing the foregoing communications, and each of them, and sending the same, at the particular time mentioned, to the court in which this cause is pending, was and is to prejudice the minds of the members of the court, and to influence the consideration of the court against the cause of the petitioner in the action Boggs v. Jordan, Secretary of State, supra, and to influence the views of the members of the court, and to procure, if possible, a decision of the matter contrary to the contentions of the petitioner.

The said Ralph Arnold, Alfred F. Andrews, and Frank C. Tracy are not, nor is either of them, an attorney at law, and are not, nor is either of them, a party to the action Boggs v. Jordan, supra.

The sending of such communications, under the circumstances, to the court which still has before it the duty of exercising judicial functions in the case is an unlawful interference with the proceedings of the court and an attempt to obstruct the course of justice, and, therefore, a contempt of court.

Citation having issued, due return and appearance having been made, and no good cause being shown why they and each of them should not be found in contempt and punished therefor, it is adjudged by the court that the said Ralph Arnold, Alfred F. Andrews, and Frank C. Tracy are, and each of them is, guilty of contempt of this court, as specified in the citation, and that as punishment therefor the said Ralph Arnold, Alfred F. Andrews, and Frank C. Tracy each pay a fine of five hundred dollars, and that in default thereof they, and each of them, stand committed to the sheriff of the city and county of San Francisco, and, until such fine is paid, be imprisoned in the county jail of such city and county at the rate of one day’s imprisonment for every two dollars of such fine.

Let a commitment issue.