The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-13
PORT ANT
P|N|0N
Powers Of Special
Session Are
Defined.
LIMITED TO
ONE SUBJECT
Attorney General Says Special
Session May Consider Only
Appropriations.

Attorney General Dole on Saturday
submitted an opinion in reply to the
resolution of Senator Achi inquiring if
any measure other than the ap-
preparation bill might be taken up by
the special session of the Legislature.
The opinion was prepared by Assist
ant Attorney General Dunno, and the
question was considered at great
length, numerous citations being given
in illustration. The exhaustive consld-
Grafton brings about the conclusion
that the Legislative power of the spe-
eial session Isl confined to the subject
of appropriations.
A letter by Attorney-General Dole,
endorsing the opinion of Mr.. Dunno.
was submitted also. The opinion is, in
part, as follows
in a Territory of this character-the
child and the creature of Congress-the
Organic Act, as the formal expression OF
the intention of Congress, constitutes the
fundamental law of the land. No ques-
ton is involved here of the operation OF
the Constitution of the United States or
of any law of the United States; SO far
as relevant to this discussion, the only
relations requiring examination are those
between the Legislature and the Organic
Act; and as against the Legislature, as
against all other Departments of the
Territorial Government, this Organic Act
must be regarded as the supreme and
paramount law.
.aThis supreme and paramount Organic
Act has, however, created in this Terri
tory a government of distributed and
balanced powers 1t creates three indie
pendent departments of government; 1t
inhibits the commingling of their pow
ers; 1t negatives the comforting by the
Legislature of the functions of one de-
partment upon another; and all this 1t
does, although no provision to this spe-
cific effect may be perceived in the Act
."The Organic Act requires that sin case
OF failure of the Legislature to pass APP
preparation bills and upon the happen
ing of that specific contingency, and no
other, the Governor shall, upon the adj
journment Of the Legislature, call 1t In
extra session for the consideration of APP
preparation bills;' and I'VE are not at lib
erty to presume that the trainers of the
Constitution, or the people who adopted
1t, did not understand the force of Ian
guage' This Decentralization of spe-
cifically identified subject matter cannot
enactment of laws for any alien pur-s
pose; the law Is the definition and limi-
tation Of power the Legislature has
constitutional power at such extra ses-
sion to proceed to the consideration of
appropriation bills and when they shall
have considered such bills, in the effect
i've sense intended by the Organic Act,
their power. under the section now be-
fore me, will have been exhausted. Leg
ali
legislation regulating highways, for ex-
ample-cannot, except by some process
of verbal torture, be described as 1egis-
lation concerning appropriation bills;' in
other words, by devoting itself to the
consideration of highways Ito pursue the
nlistration), instead of to the considera-
ton Of appropriation bills the Legisla-
ture would manifestly be attempting to
extend its jurisdiction to a class of leg
islation essentially alien from, and for
eign to, the specific class mentioned in
this section of the Organic Act. If the
Legislature has the power, In the teeth
of this mandate of the Organic Act, to
extend it's extra session Jurisdiction to
highways, it may also extend that juris-
diction to health regulations, to police
regulations, to educational regulations,
or to any other class of legislation which
may fall within the scope of its 1egit-
mate constitutional authority as exercis-
ed at a regular or Especial session. The
inhibition is no stronger in the one case
than in the other; the usurpation of
power would be fully as reprehensible in
the one case as in the other; and to
blink the plain terms of this provision
would be tantamount to the destruction
of the identity of the extra session qua
extra session. and to the repeal of Sec
ton 81, by assimilating the extra to
the regular or special session. Thus
would an extra session. called upon the
happening of a specific contingency, for
a constitutionally limited purpose, be-
come as wide open as either the 'regu-
lar or special session; thus would all
sense of identity, as among these three
classes of sessions, be destroyed; thus
would the barriers erected by the franz
ers Of this instrument be over-1eaped;
thus would the harmony of the Organic
Act be displaced by discord; and thus
would the plain intent of the trainers OF
our fundamental law be frustrated. But
the Legislature, under the plain terms
of this express and positive limitation,
has no such power. We have here the
most unequivocal proof-evidence which
no man can fail to see, wink as hard
as he wi11-that the trainers Of the Con-
stitution meant precisely what they
said The Legislature can no more ex-
tend It's Jurisdiction to the consideration
OF classes Of legislation not included in
the constitutional provision, than 1t can
conscientiousIy refuse to enter upon
the consideration Of appropriation bills
in the effective sense Of the Act; and the
application Of the principles hereinabove
formulated bears with full force upon
this section and marks 1t an express and
positive limitation upon legislative pow
or e9eGi b9T38gs gu3E@ sIc
.'The Organic Act provides that legfs-
iative failure to pass appropriation bills
shall create an obligation. not upon the
head Of any department to supply such
appropriations. but upon the Governor to
call the Legislature in extra session for
the consideration Of appropriation bills
The Legislature Is thus subrogated to the
limited functions Of the minister. 50 far
as the supplying Of lapses In appropria-
lions is concerned: new duty. hitherto
unknown to the Legislature Of the Con-
stitution Is thus impressed upon the Leg