Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-06-04
Opinion OF the Attorney General urch
the validity of AZ, order Of the Board of
Supervisors of Jefferson County.

By Chapter l89, Private and Local Laws oil
1850, certain sections in town eight OF
range fourteen in Jefferson county, were
detached from the town of Watertown,
and attached to the town of Milford. This
act is repealed by an act approved March
I'll, 1868, (Chapter I'll, Private and Local
laws of 1859 which enacts also that
these sections ''are hereby restored to, and
shall hereafter constitute part of the
town OF WATERFOWL, in said county of JEFF
ferson, for all purposes whatever"
Subsequently the Board of Supervisors
OF that county made an order again de-
tsching these sections from the town of
Wssertown and attaching them to the
town of Milford. The town OF Milford
and the town of Watertown are in differ
ent Assembly districts, General Laws of
1861, chapter 216) For the guidance of
officers OF these towns, my opinion is de-
sired upon the validity of this order of the
Board of Supervisors. It
The provision of law under which the
board are presumed to have made the Or.
der is as follows, (R. s., chapter Is, section
2S):
I'm addition to the ordinary powers
and duties of the several county boards of
supervisors enumerated in the preceding
section, the following special powers are
conferred upon them, subject 30 such mod
ihcations and restrictions as the legisla-
ture shall from time to time prescribe, to-
wit: l. To set off, organize, vacate, and
change the boundaries of towns in their
respective counties, designate and give
names thereto, the time and place of hold
ing the first elections therein, and make
all necessary orders for the disposition and
preservation of the records and papers of
any town which may be vacated by such
board"
Certain linn. cations follow, which l DO
not need to notice.
This Legislative authority is given under
Article w of the Constitution Of this
State section %, which reads: The
legislature may confer upon the boards of
supervisors OF the several couaties of the
State, such powers OF local, legislative
and administrative character, as they shall
from time to time prescribe"
The constitutional provisions in respect
to the formation of Assembly districts are
Article ". section g. The legislature
shall provide by law for an enumeration
of the inhabitants of the State, in the
year 1866, and at the end of every ten
years thereafter; and at their first session
after such enumeration, and also after
each enumeration made by the authority
of the United States, the legislature shall
apportion and district anew the members
of the Senate and Assembly, according to
the number of inhabitants, excluding In
dams not taxed, and soldiers end officer.
of the United States army and navy
Section 4. The members OF the Assembly
shall be chosen annually by single dis
tricts, on the Tuesday succeeding the first
Monday in November, by the qualified
electors of the several districts; such dis
trict to be bounded by county, precinct,
town or ward lines, to consist OF contigu
Gus territory, and be in as compact form
as practicable"
The order of the board in question takes
territory from one Assembly district and
adds it to the adjoining district, thus mod
flying the districting act of 1861 above
cited; for under the provision of the con-
stitution last cited the Assembly districts
rated by the dividing line between the
towns. (See Lannig VS.. Carpenter, 90 N.
Y. Rep. AT, and Kinney VS.. Syracuse, 80
Barb. N. Y. Rep. $40, 372) Has that
power been conferred upon the board of
supervisors
The legislative power of this State is
vested by the Constitution in Senate and
Assembly (Article ", section y, and, as
is we'll settled, could not be delegated to
the boards Of supervisors, but for section
% above cited, which confers special au-
thority not to be enlarged beyond its terms.
The word ''local" in that section evidently
qualities both the restrictive words follow
ing, notwithstanding the punctuation of
the printer, and forbids the grant of such
powers as are not strictly "local" in their
character. The Legislature enacts laws
applicable to every county, and therefore
its composition is subject of general and
not only local interest. The vote of the
member from Milford or Watertown dis
trict may determine the policy of the en-
tire State, and affect its most momentOus
interests. He is not the officer of a town
or county, but of the State. 1t may be
argued with great force that the division
of county into Assembly districts, by
which his election may be affected, is
matter therefore of general as we'll as of
local interest, and that the power to make
such division as to change it when made
is not a power of a "local character
such as may be delegated to county boards.
The number of members within certain
limits is fixed by section 2 of Article " Of
the Constitution, and the power to appor-
ton them, although not forbidden to
county boards, is expressly given to the
Legislature in section 8, and the judicial
use of that power is expressly enjoined
according to a prescribed rule. think
there is much ground to infer that the
distribution of the members of Assembly
was intended by the constitution to be a
subject for the general legislative authori
ty only to control. We may also notice
that prospective difficulty in the use OF
such powers by county officers is aggravat-
ed by the operation of section in the
same article of the constitution, which
provides that no assembly district shall
be divided in the formation OF a senate
district" Where the boundary lines OF a
town, an assembly district, and senate
district coincide, the change of the town
line may enlarge or diminish the area and
population of the districts, and is there
fore likely, especially in the case of sen
ate districts, often embracing several coun-
ties and parts of counties, to affect direct
" the rights of inhabitants of other
counties. These might retaliate or strive
to gain compromising advantages by SINH
lar proceedings. The result would be
perpetual strife and impenetrable chaos.
A bare suggestion of such probabilities
proves the necessity of combining the pow
ers of the county board to those subjects
which are in every point OF view within