The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1882-01-12

| A GREAT amount Of excitement Ina
been produced throughout the Stat,
and large amount Of comment occa
stoned by the recent decision of tn,
Supreme Court against the validity o
certain laws passed by the votes %
members of the Legislature containing
members i'm excess Of the constituti
number 125). The case I'm which thu
point wvs raised was that of the State
Of Kansas, ex. rel the Attorney Gen
eral VS.. John Francis, Treasurer ofthe
State of Kansas, in which was involv.
ed the appropriations made by the
Legislature of 1877, among which was
a grant of money to the Fish Connie
sioner, ID. B. Long.
In 1878, section ., article 9, of the
Constitution of Kansas, was amended
SO as to read as follows:
1.-The number of Representatives and
Senators shall be regulated by law, but
shall never exceed lbs Representatives.
and 40 Senators. From and after the
adoption of this amendment the House
of Representatives shall admit one
member from each organized county
i'm which Mt least $50 legal votes were
cast Mt the next preceding general
election. And such organized counties
i'm which less than 800 legal votes were
cast ut the next preceding general
election shall be attached 10 and cons
titpie part of the representative dis
trict lying next on the east"
The decision of the court is that 'the
first section of the foregoing section
simply means that the number of Rep
Resentatives constituting the House,
and the number of Senators constitu-
ting the Senate, shall be regulated by
law but the number Of Representatives
and Senators, as regulated by law,
shall never exceed l25 Representatives
and 10 Senators, and therefore under
this constitutional provision the House
of Representatives can never legally
consist Of more than l25 members.
ain 1879, the House Of Representa-
tivcs consisted of l29 members-four
more than are permitted by the Cons
titution of the State-four of which
members. to-wit: the Representatives
from Rocks, Rush, Harper and Bar
bour counties, were not, under the
Constitution and laws entitled to seats
in the House of Representatives IA
members. An act was passed that
year by the Legislature, but only by
assistance of the votes of those four
members, and except for their votes
this act would not have received a
constitutional majority of the votes of
the House; and not counting their
votes the act did not receive a cOnsti-
tutional majority Held, that the votes
OF those four members should not he
counted, and therefore, Held, that the
act must he considered "a not having
passed the House of Representatives.
and rs void"
This decision was considered iInpor-
tant in that il might affect all the pro-
hihitory lenislation which We now
have. AS To the prohibitory law, il
was found upon INVESTIGATION that II
was In no way affected L., the decision.
The law was passed I'm the Senate,
which is composed az the constitution
al majority 40 by n vote Of 81 to Z,
and in the House bv a vote of 100 TO
being IA absent or not voting.
Of the alleged IL illegal members In
the House, two voted against the law,
two were absent, and the remaining
voted for the law. This gave - major
ity for the law i'm the House, exclusive
Of the illegal members. The law GER
tainly stands behind safe ramparts.
The resolution by which the cons |
titutional prohibitory anendn,n: was
to the people was cl">.', and
there were several illegal members In
The Legislature at that time. The vote
stood in the Senate 81 for, none against
In the House, IS for, nays 81, absent
Or not voting, 10. Two-thirds OF the
members elected in the Housc, ~.
The surplus votes would be thus :. 1t
would thus take 8 illegal votes to affect
L aud these have not been found.
But further. even II the amendment |
was illegally submitted, II is very
doubtful IL II would be invalidated
After Il had been voted upon by the
people.
Since writing the above . COM
plete examination has been made by |
State officers Of the Journal al the
House, and Il has been found that all
The appropriation bills were legally
passed, also the seventeenth judicial
district bill, about which doubt has
been expressed. No very important
laws failed Of not receiving legal
majority. A few were cast leealining
The acts Of notary publics; one act
where Milford township. In Davis
Wa authorized TO vote bonds
10 build . bridge; one oct auth9riztng
he city Of Winfield TO turn over u 500
10 build bridge, and . few other un-
acts are effected by the de-
sisi0n Of the supreme court