The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-06-09
THE NOEL AMENDMENTS
Declared Null and Void by the
State Supreme Court.


JACKSON, may oV.-l nc Noei dihchu
ments to the constitution of Mississippi
substituting the elective for the APP
pointive Judiciary system were today
pronounced null and void by the su-
preme court of the State. The opinion
which was delivered by Chief Justice
Whitfield was unanimously concurred
in by the other members. The court
room was crowded during reading OF
the opinion. The effect of the decision
will be to restore the status of the
judiciary as it existed before the
adoption of the amendments by the
legislature. The following is synop-
sis of the courts opinion:
Three questions are presented for solution.
First, is the question whether the PROPOSE
ton submitted to the voters for adoption
as part of the constitution be one amend
ment or two amendments, and whether
said amendment is judicial question; and
likewise is the question whether such propo-
sition received the majority prescribed by
the constitution as essential to Its valid
adoption judicial question:
Second-If these questions are Judicial
questions, was the proposition one amend
ment, or two or more amendments and as
necessarily involved herein, was the propo-
sition submitted in the way the constitution
imperatively requires it to be submitted
Third-Was the proposition adopted by
the majority of qualified electors prescribed
by the constitution as essential to the adop-
lion of an amendment therefor
Regarding first proposition the court de-
clared it clear that both questions we're OF
judicial kind, and numerous authorities
were cited in support of this view.
''The constitution" said the court, "can
be amended in but two ways, by the people
assembled in constitutional convention or
by observing the constitutional methods
marked out in section 273 Of the constltu-
ton of 1890. 1t is a mandate of the con-
stitution itself, the paramount and supreme
law of the land that such amendment can
not become part Of the constitution unless
two facts were existent: First, unless such
amendment or amendments should be sub
mitted in the mode pointed out. Second,
unless such amendment or amendments
should be adopted by the majority pre-
scribed These two conditions are facts
which must exist in truth and in reality and
not simply be declared to exist by the legis-
lature, whether they exist or not"
Referring to the second proposition, the
court declared that the proposition sub
mitted to the voters contained at least four
separate amendments. Those, the opinion
insists, were submitted not in accordance
with section 273 of the constitution, and
Notwithstanding the action of the legisla-
ture in inserting them into the constitution
are null and void and no part of the con-
stitution.
The third proposition has relation to the
majority required for the adoption OF
constitutional amendment, or, more plainly,
whether it is required that it be majority
of all those electors voting at the election
or those voting on the adoption or rejection
Of the particular constitutional amend
ments submitted. Various references where
the word majority is used in the Misssis-
sinpi laws is referred to, and then the court
concludes that "the significant fact stands
ont like a mountain on a landscape that for
the whole period of time from 1917 to 1871,
the constitution Of the State having been
four times changed during such period, a
period of seventy-three years Of State his
tory, the people of this State, speaking
through their sovereign instrument the
constitution, had uniformly declared that
no majority of electors less than a majority
of those voting for members of the legisla-
turs (which election would bring out, it was
presumed, the largest number of electors)
to change the organic law Of the land"
Concluding, the court sayS: 1--WE are
not embarrassed in this ease, as some OF
the courts whose decisions we have dis
cussed we're embarrassed, by the fact that
a construction different from ours had been
uniformly acted upon for long period OF
time by all the departments Of government,
and that rights have grown up under such
different constructions The governor Of
this State, forsseeing the evil effects to
come from long delay and the confusion
which would be introduced by waiting for
years. It might Be, until the validity Of