Belt Valley times. [volume] (Armington, Mont.) 1894-1977, 1923-02-15


voted by the people at the last gener.
al election, to be unconstitutional, ar
opinion was handed down in the su
preme court Saturday in deciding the
friendly suit recently instituted in
that court to test the validity of the
law.
The opinion was written by Asso.
ciate Justice Albert j. Galen, himself
veteran of the recent war, and il
was concurred in=hy all other mem
bers of the court, and holds that the
law contravenes Section of Article
Is of the constitution. That section
as quoted in the opinion reads:
Neither the state nor any coun-
ty, city, town, municipality, nor other
a sabdiyision Il zEzIE bate shaIElEoi7n
give or loan its credit in aid of or
make any donation or grant by sub
sidy or otherwise to any individual,
association or corporation"
The opinion quotes Section IL of
Article IL of the constitution in sup
port of the decision as follows:
"Taxes shall be levied and collected
by general laws for public purposes
only"
Immediately after quoting the sec
ton of the constitution upon which
the decision of the court is made,
Justice Galen has the following to
say:
Law a Double Obstacle.
"The prohibition of the constitu-
tional provisions is, as indicated,
double in character, being both man.
datory and prohibitory, applicable
alike to the legislative assembly and
the people in their legislative capaci-
ty. Irrespective of the determine
ton of other courts, it is our sacred
duty to measure the act by the term
of our constitutional limitations, as
we interpret them.
"It must be evident to anyone that
the power to declare q legislative en-
actment void is one which the judge,
conscious of the fallibility of the hu-
man judgment, will shrink from ex-
ercising in any case where he can
conscientiously and with due regard
to duty and official oath, decline the
responsibility. The legislative and ju-
dieial are coordinate departments of
the government of equal dignity; each
&c oil IN, b< ,f &c
proper functions, and cannot directly
or indirectly while acting within the
limits of its authority be subjected
to the control or supervision of the
other without an unwarrantable as
sumption by that other of power
which, by the constitution, is not con-
ferred upon it. The constitution ap-
portions the powers of government,
but it does not make any one of the
three departments subordinate to an
other when exercising the trust COM
mitted to it. The courts may declare
legislative enactments unconstitution-
al and void in some cases, but not be-
cause the judicial power is superior
in degree or dignity to the legisla-
tive: Being required to declare what
the law is in cases which come before
them, they must enforce the consti-
tuition as the paramount law, when
ever legislative enactment comes in
conflict with it,
Bonus Rests With II. s.
'It was the United States that was
at war, and while the state of Mon
tana was bound to do all in it's power
to aid the government, the court says,
yet the independent prerogative to go
to war is vested in the federal gov
ernment and the state is in the same
position as municipality.
Justice Galen further says.
"The sovereign power of the Unit
ed States in the family of nations is
vested exclusively in the United
States government Sovereignty in
it's full sense imports the supreme,
absolute and uncomfortable power by
which any independent state is gov
erned, and although the states of the
union are called sovereign and indie
pendent states under the Declaration
of Independence, they were never IN
their individual capacity strictly so
because they were always, in respect
to some of the higher powers of the
sovereignty. subject to the control of
a common authority and were never
separately recognized or known as
members of the family Of nations.
There Ia no legal duty on thH state
10 reward those who baItled for Dhe
preservation of the nation; the legal
obligation runs the other way. The
individual owes q duty to society To J