They may say otherwise now, but there was hardly a person in state Capitol circles who I spoke to this week– Democrat or Republican– who thought that the redistricting initiative Proposition 77 would be placed back on the ballot.

But that’s just what the California Supreme Court did, in a 4-2 ruling. Some notes on the issue, and what happens next:

* The decision did not fully settle the matter. In the relatively terse ruling, the high court simply allowed Prop 77 to be on the ballot, while reserving the right to revisit the case after the election. It’s a decision that sounds very much like what happened with Proposition 80, the initiative to re-regulate the energy industry. An appeals court kicked that measure off the ballot last month for being unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court overturned that decision, saying the issues would better be resolved after the election.

* The court’s ruling indicates that the justices were motivated less by whether the proponents followed the rules, and more about whether voters who signed the petitions were misled. The majority opinion seems to follow the logic of appeals court Justice Arthur Scotland, who made the same points last week but was outvoted.

* The case was considered by 6 jurists, with the seat once held by Janice Rogers Brown (now a federal judge) still being vacant. But one of those jurists was not a Supreme Court justice. With Justice Kathryn Werdegar listed simply as “unavailable”, Chief Justice Ronald George temporarily elevated an appellate judge, Justice Richard Aldrich of the Second District Court of Appeals.

The ruling will make things a little more interesting next week when the Legislature reconvenes, as talk again turns to the likelihood of Democrats and Governor Schwarzenegger hashing out compromise measures for the ballot.