In early 2007, the Sixth District Court of Appeal in Spielbauer v. County ofSanta Clara had shocked the law enforcement community by attacking on constitutional grounds the legal foundation for the long-settled process of public employee interrogations that had been endorsed by the landmark case of Lybarger v. City ofLos Angeles (1985) 40 Cal.3d 822. On February 9, 2009, in a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court reversed the Sixth District on that issue, reaffirmed the tenets of Lybarger, and restored peace and harmony in internal affairs units statewide.

Mr. Spielbauer was a public defender whose employer sought to question him about alleged misconduct in court. Spielbauer refused to answer questions, alleging that his department had no authority to order a statement from him nnless it previously granted immunity, and that his department had no authority to grant any such immunity. The Sixth District agreed, holding that the agency's ability to obtain a statement, based on its reading of U.S. Supreme Court cases, was contingent upon a prior grant of immunity, and not just a Lybarger advisal that notified employees that their compelled statements were not usable against them in a later criminal case.

The California Supreme Court asserted that the lower court had improperly ignored a line of federal cases that maintained that statements obtained by compulsion were inherently unusable against the maker in a criminal case by virtue of the Fifth Amendment alone, and that no formal grant of immunity was necessary. The Court concluded that Lybarger advisals provided more than adequate constitutional protection, and that the obtaining of immunity from public employees in interrogations was neither constitutionally required nor otherwise feasible. Holding that governmental employers must have the ability to question their employees in a prompt manner about potential breaches of the public trust, the Supreme Court found that the Lybarger standards insured that investigations could be conducted expeditiously without compromising the Fifth Amendment rights of employees. Accordingly, law enforcement agencies will continue business as usual, although we have been advised that Mr. Spielbauer will attempt to renew his Constitutional arguments in the United States Supreme Court.