New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1916-03-08
LAW MAY SHORTEN
OFFICIALS TERMS
FOUR YEAR TERM BELIEVED IN
CONFLICT WITH STATE CON-
STITUTION.
JUSTICE HALLAM RAISES POINT
IN RENDERING DULUTH
DECISION.

GAS matter of fact, county officers in
every county in the state today are
holding under statute fixing their term
at four years from the first Monday in
January, 1915, and until their successors
are elected and qualified. This term
exceeds the constitutional limit fixed by
section g, article 7 of the constitution,
which permits no hold-over at all. But
it has never been considered that such
statutes are void except as to excess
over the. constitutional limit
With the above side remark in render
ing decision in the case involving the
legal term of Office of a municipal judge
at Duluth, Judge Hallam Of the Mime
sofa Supreme Court has thrown the term
of every county officer in the State of
Minnesota open for contest, at least
after the first two years of the four-year
term have expired. Legal sharps who
have made study of the present cleo
ton laws and their relation to the state
constitution are of the opinion that
\. the law passed by the 1913 legislature
is in conflict with the constitution and
will not hold water when attacked in
the courts.
It is pointed out that the constitutional
amendment adopted November 6, 1883,
refers to all state, county and state
officers, except judicial officers, the terms
of the latter already having been fixed
by the original draft of the constitution.
The term of office of clerks of courts also
had been provided for in the original
draft
Section 9, article 7, of the constitution
above referred, to- = fixes the official
year of the state and then fixes the terms
of all state and county officers in the
following language: ''The first general
election for state and county officers,
except judicial officers, after the adoption
of this amendment, shall be held in this
year 1884, and thereafter the general
election shall be held biennially. All
state, county and other officers elected
at any general election, whose terms
of office would otherwise expire on the
first Monday of January, 1886, shall
hold and continue in such offices, re-
spectively, until the first Monday in
January, 1887"
The law passed by the 1913 legislature
makes the question of which officers are
meant by "county, officers somewhat
clearer by enumerating them separately,
as follows: I'm every county in this
state there shall be elected at the gen.
eral election in 1914, and not before,
county auditor, county treasurer, sheriff,
register of deeds, county attorney, coro-
ner, county surveyor and county super
intendent of schools.
''The second section specifies the terms
of office as follows: 'The terms of office
of the said county officers shall be four
years and until their successors are elect
ed and qualified and shall begin on the
first Monday in January next succeeding
said election; and said offices shall be
filled by election every four years there
after"
I The intent of the law in either case
to the layman is very plain. Before the
passage of the law of 1918 there could
not have been found lawyer in the en-
tire state who would have questioned
the fact that the constitution provided
for two-year term of office for the
fo1c I, i
previously been fixed. No attempt has
been made at any time to disturb the
fixed time of elections, however irregular
they may have been previous to 1884.
1t is an unquestioned fact that law
passed by the state legislature cannot
abbrogate a constitutional amendment
or change any section of the constitu-
ton and no section of the constitution
can be changed except by passage of
another constitutional amendment.
The only question which seems un-
answered is whether or not the last
clause of the constitutional amendment
becomes retroactive insofar as it refers
to the expiration of the terms of office
in the last clause and the reference to
the holding of biennial elections in the
second quoted above.
The question, now that it has been
= raised by the newspapers, will no doubt
result in the filing of some one who has
an interest in the final outcome and it
would not be a surprise at all to see a
filing for one or the other of the county
offices offered to the county auditor.