Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-03-10
The Appointive Power

In chins for reasons, fictitious Or
otherwise, upon which to base Il veto
OF the capitol Commission bill, Rogers
and las h,nchman Sniyelv ransacked
the State library, and finally evolved
the following in tn" message:
" nlrr the American system of gov
truIneut three coordinate departments
are created: Legislative, executive and
judicial; each supreme within certain
constitutional limits. Under constitu-
tonal provisions similar To ours it has
become fixed As settled principle that
no one OF these departments OF govern
mcnt can override or destroy the power
and functions oi the others. But Senate
bill No. 3D. attempts to do this by tax
ing from the Governor his constitutional
power OF appointment and removal.
The hill is therefore unconstitutional,
and void and ii enacted into law will fur
nish a precedent which NAV return to
plaque its inventors. To establish this
a Ion. line Of authorities may be cited"
They were very careful to not cite
any long line of authorities" how
ever, nor any authorities whatever, for
the very good and sufficient reason
that there arc none to support the
proposition that the bill vetoed was
unconstitutional.
Under the constitution of the State
Of Washington the appointing power
Of the Governor is not general-and if
Rogers and Snively do not know this,
their ignorance is inexcusable. The
appointing power is vested in the Gov
ernor, under the constitution, only to
the limited extent expressly set forth.
Article Mi, the only one in the Con-
stitution comforting appointing power,
provides that the Governor shall APP
point the regents, trustees or commits
sioners OF all educational, reformatory
and penal institutions, those for the
benefit of blind, deaf, dumb or other.
wise, defective youth, for the insane
or idiotic, and "such other institu.
tions as the public good may require. u
1t is well known principle of legal
Interpretation that the enumeration oil
certain specific cases in which given
state or fact shall apply, operates as a
Limitation, and eliminates any case
not so enumerated. Besides this, the
Supreme Court of the State has decid
ell, in matters of this kind, that the
language: "Such other institutions
means such other institutions of the
same kind as may be created. This
being true, how could the State CAPT.
toll possibly be classed with the institu
tions enumerated?
But there is another fact more i'm.
portant than any of the foregoing, in
connection with the capitol land
grant. In Sec. II of the Enabling Act
by virtue of which the Congress of the
United States granted lands for CAPT
toll purposee in our State, aud in the
other States admitted with us, it is
specifically provided:
And the lands granted by this section
shall be hetd, appropriated and disposed o.
exclusively for the purposes herein men
toned, in such manner as the Legislatu re,
cfthe respective States may scrsrdlly pro
ride.
This language clearly creates trust
and names the Legislature of the State
as the trustees. If our constitution
had vested the appointing power gen
orally in the Governor, which it doe.
not do, the language of the Enabling
Actwould take the land grant out from
under its provisions. 1t is a condition
attached to the grant of lands. Under
our law of 1898, the appointive power
of the executive was derived from thu
Legislature, not from the constitution
What the Legislature then granted il
could afterwards take away. Instead
of invading the domain of the execu.
tive, in naming the Capitol Commits
sioners, the Legislature was strictly
within its express prerogative; and or
the contrary, when his accidency We
toed the bill, he invaded the domain
of the legislative power and set a,
nought the will of Congress. He and
ellis Jags" deliberately pettifoggej
the subject in the message. 1t ali
turned upon this point. Every othe,
contention being on matters of expe.
diency, of which the Legislature is the
better and should be the sole Judge, il
would be 9 matter of surprise that the
Senate had not made this discovery
were it not true that the Big Ok Blood
Chief of the Pollywaups has had theil
scalps dangling at his belt ever since
he began using the veto knife.