Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-02-18

under the constitution 10 make laws and
repeal them
The supreme court Of Illinois say: The
legislative power extends only to the
making OF laws and in its exercise it Is
limited and res ricted by the paramount
authority of the federal and state constitu-
tons"
This power left to the legislature to be
exercised in a manner pointed out by the
constitution is no more political power,
independent in its exercise of the power
and duty of the court to keep it within
limits and restrictions, than is the power
to divide the state into Judicial districts
or to provide for the organiza-
tion of counties Both are
powers restricted by the constitution.
Counties and towns are political sub-divi-
sions Of the state, factors in the admins
tration of governmental affairs, but the
Legislature IN creating counties and towns
and comforting upon them the powers of
local self government and the functions es-
sential to carry out the objects of their 10
cation, exercises legislative power and if
it violates the restrictions of the constitu-
ton as to dividing a county without a
popular vote or creating town by special
act or disfranchizing the people of com
munity, depriving them absolutely of the
right of self government it transcends its
Legislative power under the constitution
and its act is void.
The fact that the rights which we ask
the court to protect against unconstitu-
ticnal invasion, are in their nature politi-
cal rights does not make the power of
apportlon ment political power, nor
the action Of this court thereon ausurpa-
ton of political power. There isno more
sense in calling the power of making an
apportlon ment political power, because
its affects quite directly political rights,
than there would be in saying that an act
of the Legislature providing for system
of common schools is an educational
power, or that an act providing for the
protection of the religious rights and
liberties of the people, is religious pow
er, or that an act providing for militia
is military power. 1t is one of the func-
tions of the court to protect against I'M
constitutional Legislative invasion, the
political rights of the people.
The contention of the counsel carried
to its legitimate result involves worse
than reductio adabsurdum. His conten-
ton must be that no matter what the act
is, if it only relates to apportionment,
and re, districting of the state, it is within
the absolute power of the Legislature, and
the court has no jurisdiction to hear and
determine in relation to it. Therefore, if
an apportionment bill were passed by the
Legislature providing for the election of
members of the assembly by
districts not single districts; and by
districts neither bounded by
county, precinct, town, or ward lines,
a1d by districts not consisting of contig-
uous territory, and therefore not all in
compact form. and creating senatorial dis
triots, other than single districts, and not
Of contiguous territory, and dividing in
the formation of senate districts, assem-
lily districts, in other words, violating
every limitation and restriction prescribed
by the constitution, the court may say in
answer to appeal for protection that it has
no jurisdiction to hear and determine the
matter, and is impotent to afford any
remedy to the people. The doctrine is
odious, and without any support in rea-
son or in law.
The constitution fixes the limits to the
exercise of Legislative authority,i and pre-
scribes the orbit within which it must
move. In short, the constitution is the
sun around which all legislative, executive,
and judicial bodies must revolve; and that
whatever may be the case in other coun
tries, yet in this there can be no doubt
that every act of the Legislature repuonant
to the constitution is null and void,
What utter folly to argue in this Gay in
the highest court of the state upon which
our constitution confers original jurisdic-
ton in matters publici juris, that in the
passage of an apportionment bill Or any
other bill involving the exercise of legisla-
tive power, the limitations of the consti-
Legislature is constitution unto Itself.
On the theory of the counsel, if the leg
islature should make an apportionment
every winter this court would have no
jurisdiction to determine its validity and
cali that coordinate branch Of the govern
ment back to the limitations placed up
on its power by the constitution because it
would have no jurisdiction of the subject
matter. OF course it would be not only
the power of this court but its duty as to
any other act of The
Legislature to pass upon the
question of its constitutionality. But of
an apportionment act never. Mirabile
dictu! But it so happens that the courts
o: the country have not regarded appor-
tionment acts as exceptions to the rule
that legislatures are bound by constitu-
tional limitations in the enactment of laws
and that if they disregarded them, it is the