The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-02-14
BRANDON GAN NOW
 CALL FOR OP PIN|ON ON PORT MEASURE
New Law Empowers Governor to Call on the Supreme Court for Advisory
 Opinions
STATE CAPITAL BUREAU I
 THE AGE-HERALD Montgomery Ala Fah ia

Governor Brandon now has author ity to call upon the supreme court for an advisory opinion regarding the efficacy of the seaport amendment, ratified by the voters last November. The Ware bill conferring this power upon the governor and the supreme court bscame a law when the gover- nor fixed his signature Wednesday. The seaport amendment will be cer- tified at once with the request that the supreme court determine whether or not the state may under its pro- vision issue bonds to the amount of $10.000,000 for the construction of docks and other facilities for the handling of Alabama products at the port.
 This bill has had an unusual but interesting career in the legislature. Shortly after the supreme court in 1921 held the s25,00o,o00 road bond amendment to be invalid because the legislature delegated to the governor the authority to fix date for the special election, Thomas c. McClel- an, associate justice of the supreme court, suggested provision be made by the legislature for the submission of constitutional questions to the su- preme court for advisory opinions re- garding the validity of the actions proposed.
 Governor Kilby became interested In the suggestions, and Justice Me- Clellkn made study of the constitu- tion and laws of the state which pro- vide for the rendition of advisory opinions which he submitted to the governor.
 Justice Mcclellan Makes Study
 In this study Justice Mcclellan showed that the provision for ad- visory opinions has been in the con stitution of Massachusetts for 140 years and that it remains in the con- stitution during the process of re- writing in recent years. Constitu- tions of the following other states were found to contain a similar pro- vision: Maine, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Colorado, Florida and Rhode Island. The public statutes of Yer mont required the supreme court to give opinion regarding the duties of state officials, while the supreme court of Kentucky without any re- quirement in the constitution or stat ute recognizes the value of the prac- tice by giving opinions on important questions without the raising of the issu in a lgal way.
 With the information gathered by Judge Mcclellan before him, Cover nor Kilby included this subject in his call for the special session of the leg islature in 1921, and requested that similar legislation be enacted. That the opposition of members of the leg islature could not be overcome. There was an impression that such law would cause members of the supreme court to preiudge cases and many other objections were found
 Introduces Bill Again
 Representative D. T. Ware of Ran dolph introduced the bill again short ly after the legislature was organ ized in January. Because of the op- position two years before little atten- tion was paid to the bill until an ap- parent flaw was discovered in the seaport amendment. The first opinion was the amendment did net grant the state authority to issue bonds for port development although it dld grant permission to the state to lend it's credit to the extent of s10,- 000 000
 Further investigation caused many attorneys to believe the amendment would permit the state to issue bonds. Friends of the port and of the ad- ministration became interested in the Ware bill, which would bring an ad- visory opinion of the supreme court, and it was passed with practically no opposition.