The California Supreme Court appeared closely divided Tuesday over the constitutionality of a ballot measure passed in November to speed up executions.

Proposition 66, sponsored by prosecutors, would require courts to rapidly review death penalty appeals, force more criminal defense lawyers to represent death row inmates and remove public review requirements for the state’s lethal injection procedures.

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Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar said the measure appeared to contain “pretty stark time limits.”

“If you are asking us not to view the five-year time limit as binding, what exactly is the speed-up?” Cuellar asked.