Case Title: In Re Interrogatories Propounded by the Senate

Citation: 452 P.2d 382

Docket Number: 

State: colorado

Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Date: 1969-04-03T00:00:00Z

Document:
452 P.2d 382 (1969) In re INTERROGATORIES PROPOUNDED BY THE SENATE Concerning House Bill 1060. No. 24096. Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc. April 3, 1969. *383 GROVES, Justice. The Senate of the forty-seventh General Assembly of the state of Colorado, entertaining doubts as to the constitutionality of House Bill 1060, adopted its resolution No. 9 under the provisions of Colo. Const. art. VI, § 3 requesting our opinion in the matter. House Bill 1060 would amend 1965 Perm.Supp., C.R.S. 1963, 37-12-5(1) and 37-12-14(1) so that Kit Carson and Lincoln Counties would be removed from the fourth judicial district of Colorado and placed in the thirteenth judicial district. There now are six counties in the thirteenth judicial district and the proposed legislation would increase the number to eight. Colo. Const. art. VI, § 10(1) as amended on November 6, 1962, effective January 12, 1965, provides in part: "The general assembly may by law, whenever two-thirds of the members of each house concur therein, change the boundaries of any district or increase or diminish the number of judicial districts." Colo. Const. art. VI, § 20 as amended on November 6, 1966, effective January 17, 1967 provides for the appointment of judges, other than supreme court justices, by the governor from nominees submitted by judicial district nominating commission. Colo. Const. art. VI, § 24(3) provides in part as follows: The Senate in Resolution No. 9 has asked this court We answer the two numbered questions in the affirmative and express the opinion that House Bill 1060 is unconstitutional. In People ex rel. v. Cassidy, 50 Colo. 503, 117 P. 357, this court quoted with approval an Illinois case to the effect that an amendment to the constitution is paramount to provisions in conflict therewith incorporated in the constitution as originally framed and that provisions of the amendment must prevail, but in all other respects the earlier provisions remain unimpaired. Cassidy continues: The ruling in City & County of Denver v. Sweet, 138 Colo. 41, 329 P.2d 441, is to the same effect. When the people of this state adopted the amendatory provision providing that there should be at least one voting member from each county it was meant that at least one voting member should be a resident of each county. Webster's New International Dictionary 1012 (2nd ed. 1958) defines "from" as indicating the source. "A citizen of Salisbury will say of a citizen of Gold-Hill, whom he sees in Salisbury, that he is from `Gold-Hill'signifying his residence there." Salisbury Commissioners v. Powe, 51 N.C. 134. When one considers that the judicial nominating commissions submit to the governor nominees for county judges, the intent becomes even more plain that the people of the state wished a resident of each county to be on the commission. As the amendatory provision provides that there will be seven members of each judicial nominating commission, the result must follow that this provision placed a restriction upon Colo. Const. art. VI, § 10 in that the boundaries of any district may not be increased so that any district embraces more than seven counties.