Restrictions on the political activities of public employees and the application of the statutory ban on obscenity were some of the First Amendment problems presented to the California appellate courts this past year. Due process also received some attention. The courts were faced with such diverse questions as the regulation of insurance companies doing business in California exclusively by mail, the right to a hearing when the government takes action against an individual, and the taxation of foreign-based aircraft that fly into, out of, and within California. Reapportionment of an irrigation district, license taxes, and payment for care of a patient at a state mental institution were among the problems in the realm of equal protection that confronted the courts
