WASHINGTON, D.C., May 30 – The. U.S. Supreme Court today rejected an appeal by California to review a state Supreme Court decision outlawing the death penalty.

The high court currently is considering whether to abolish capital punishment across the land, as being in violation of the federal Constitution. The justices gave no reason for declining unanimously to add California’s appeal to its docket.

Still before the court, for a ruling expected next month, are other appeals testing the constitutionality of the death penalty.

The California court held 6 to 1 Feb. 18 that the death penalty “may no longer be exacted” in that state because it violates the state Constitution. The action spared the lives of the 102 men and five women who make up the nation’s largest death row population, including Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and mass murderer Charles Manson.

California’s petition, filed by Atty. Gen. Evelle J. Younger, called the decision “an unseemly rush to judgement” while the death penalty issue was pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Younger contended that the “state ground” asserted by the California court, a provision in the California Constitution, was “palpably transparent” and that the ruling consequently should be reviewed by the U.S. court.

The California Constitution prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments.” Since the California court found the death penalty both cruel and unusual, Younger argued, it was really interpreting the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The state also argued that the decision violated the rights of Californians by “usurping the legislative function.” Younger said that “by abolishing the death penalty the court has enacted its personal views into law over the will of a protesting public.”

Proponents of capital punishment, including Gov. Reagan, followed the decision up by backing an amendment to the state Constitution specifically authorizing the death penalty. The move failed in the California Senate in early May. However, a current drive seeks to reinstate the death penalty in California through an initiative measure.

Thg California case directly involved Robert P. Anderson, 34, who was under death sentence for the 1965 murder of a San Diego shopkeeper.

In another action, the Supreme Court today approved the method used by Texas to reduce assistance to needy families with some outside income.

The vote was 5 to 4 with the four Nixon Administration appointees and Justice Byron R. White in the majority. The four dissenters said the cut system violated federal welfare law.