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SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Gov. Gray Davis cannot arbitrarily overrule a state law that sets guidelines for freeing rapists and child molesters after they have served their sentences. 

But the justices held up the release of serial rapist Patrick Ghilotti. The 46-year-old Marin County man is the first person to successfully complete the state’s sex predator treatment program, and three mental health evaluators say he no longer poses a danger to society. 

The sexually violent predator law, which went into effect in 1996, enables the state to keep sex offenders locked up indefinitely as long as two evaluators say they’re still a threat and a judge or jury agrees. 

Ghilotti’s case was sent back to a Marin County judge for review. The justices said lower courts can review the mental health evaluations to make sure they comply with state law. 

They also clarified the standards under which an offender can be recommitted. 

The law says a person can be kept locked up if “he or she is likely to engage in acts of sexual violence without appropriate treatment and custody.” The high court defined “likely” as presenting a “substantial danger — that is, a serious and well-founded risk” unless the person is confined. 

But Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, in her dissenting opinion, worried the revised definition will, in fact, lower the bar for commitment to Atascadero State Hospital. 

“A person who has been convicted of multiple violent sex crimes and who continues to suffer from the mental disorder that led to those crimes, would, it seems, always present a ’substantial,’ ’serious’ or ’well-founded’ risk of reoffending,” she wrote. 

The justices also said evaluators can consider whether an offender might seek post-release treatment on his own, but said treatment isn’t required as a condition of release. 

The governor applauded the decision, saying he was “never convinced” Ghilotti was “rehabilitated enough to return to society.” 

But Ghilotti’s lawyer, Ed Farrell, believes the ruling will work in his client’s favor. 

“We’re glad about the part of the opinion that says you can look at whether a person’s going to receive treatment out in the community,” he said, adding that his client continues to take testosterone-reducing drugs. “We don’t think Mr. Ghilotti fits the criteria for recommitment.” 

Ghilotti first was scheduled for release last October after undergoing four years of therapy at Atascadero. But he turned down a court-ordered outpatient treatment program, saying it was too restrictive. 

He came within hours of release again in December when his latest two-year commitment expired. The three independent mental health professionals who evaluated Ghilotti determined he was no longer dangerous, but state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, at the governor’s urging, filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court to block his release. 

The justices said, in the future, when the Mental Health Department’s director disagrees with the conclusions of its evaluators and believes they conducted them improperly, he can ask prosecutors to seek recommitment. But the ultimate decision remains with a judge. 

“I don’t think the Legislature intended me to just be a rubber stamp,” said Mental Health Department Director Stephen Mayberg. “That seems to be the court’s opinion. Not that I can overrule or ignore the evaluations, but I can raise the question of whether they are legally sufficient or not.” 

The ruling Thursday was 5-2, with two calling for release.