The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-10-28
ADVISORY OPINION BILL IS DEFEATED
 BY BOTH HOUSES
Killed in Senate by Vote of 18 to 7 and Postponed Indefinitely in the
 House
By FRED IT. GORMLEY Montgomery Bureau, The ARe-HeraId S21-2 First National Bark Buildin1

Montgomery. October 27--(Special. ) Tho bill providing for advisory opin- l Ions of the supreme court on meas Involve possible violations of the constitution was defeated by the leg islature Thursday. The defeat came in the senate by vote of IS to ', after greater part of the morning ses- sion had been devoted to q discus sion of the provisions of the law. The house also gave a great part of the morning session to 1t, and as soon as the decisive defeat of the meas ure was recorded in the senate the house voted to postpone Indefinitely the further consideration of the house bill. This was the last day a bill may be passed by either house with the hope of final action by the ] other house at the special session, if final adjournment is taken Saturday night as now planned.
 When the supreme court opinion bill was called in the house a sub stitute was adopted which provided that advisory opinions could be ob- tained only by the governor and then only on bills which had been passed by the legislature and had been sub mitted to him for approval or re- jection.
 Representatives Chauncey Sparks oi Barbour, w. B. Alexander of Perry and Oscar L. Tompkins of Houston made arguments in support of the bill in the house, contending that this bill would have saved many of the bills which were held to be invalid and unconstitutional by the supreme court following the regular sessions of the legislature in 1919. They in- sisted that the governor should have the best advice obtainable on the validity of measures submitted to him for approval or rejection and that this advice should come from the su- preme court, which was better trained in the investigation of the subject than any other persons.
 Representative A. s. VandeGraaff of Tuscaloosa opposed the bill on the ground that 1t would be violation of the constitution itself to require the supreme court to render opin- ions in advance regarding the valid ity of laws.
 Acker Leads Arguments
 Making the leading argument on the senate bill W. P. Acker of Cal houn county, said that If such & law
 
 1t would not now be necessary for the special session of 1921 to spend thousands of the states money in Montgomery. The special session was called, he said, to correct legislation of last year, which should have been first approved by the supreme court in an informal opinion. He said that an advisory opinion from the su- preme court would in no manner
 
 mally brought before the high court
 Generalization of power now held by the three departments of the state government, the executive, the ju- dicial and the legislative. with the supreme court would be the result of the enactment into law of the admin istration measure. Senator Charlie Mcdowell of Barbour county, said in a speech opposing the measure. The governor and attorney general, he said, have large contingent funds from which to draw to pay for ex- pert opinion, and the high court should not be asked for an opinion until formally brought before it. "The great fundamentals of this gov- ernment of ours is being done away with in this bill, which renders un- limited power to the supreme court, now held by the three departments" said the Barbour senator.
 Lay members of this senate are in favor of the bill" said Senator John Craft of Mobile. We think there should be some method which would eliminate the expense of spe- cial sessions of the legislature to correct defect of other legislatures Senator R. B. Evins of Hale county, feared that an informal opinion from the justices of the supreme court might prejudice cases before they are formally brought to the court
 Referring to the fact the bill was very much desired by the governor. Senator John Rogers of Sumter county paid a tribute to Governor Kilby, but said he would have to dis- agree with the chief executive re- garding the advisability of the meas ure. He told the administration sem ators that they could vote against the bill, and not offend the governor. "The governor does not want toe con- trol my opinion, nor your opinion" said the Sumter senator.