Gomez

We granted review to decide whether a court commissioner has the authority to summarily deny a petition for writ of mandamus or habeas corpus under Code of Civil Procedure section 259, subdivision (a), which authorizes commissioners to “[h]ear and determine ex parte motions for orders and alternative writs and writs of habeas corpus.” We conclude that section 259, subdivision (a) does grant this authority to commissioners and that, at least when the petition seeks to enforce a prisoner’s rights while in confinement—but does not seek to collaterally attack the criminal conviction that provides the basis for that confinement— the summary denial of a writ petition constitutes a “subordinate judicial dut[y]” properly undertaken by a commissioner within the meaning of article VI, section 22 of the California Constitution.

Facts

Petitioner Gomez, an inmate at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, filed a petition for writ of mandate in the Lassen Superior Court, seeking to require the prison to process four administrative appeals of grievances that he had filed. These administrative appeals addressed his grievances regarding the prison policies for the certification of in…