Opinion ID: 1737377
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the powers of appointment

Text: We have held above that any enactment providing that legislators may serve as voting members on commissions, boards and agencies performing essentially executive functions contravenes Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution. We have further held that those legislators who are exercising powers we have held to be essentially executive are thereby violating Article I, Section 2. We turn now to the legislators' argument that they have the power to appoint others to serve on various commissions, boards and agencies which are performing essentially executive functions. [5] The legislators rely on Article IV, Section 103 of the Constitution which provides that the legislature shall determine the mode of filling vacancies in offices. They argue that under our decision in Clark v. State, ex rel . Miss. State Medical Association, 381 So.2d 1046 (Miss. 1980), the legislature is vested with all the powers of appointment not specifically granted to another branch of government. This argument is without merit, in our opinion, for it does not reach the critical issue, appointment to do what? Article IV, Section 33 of the Constitution vests the legislative power in the legislative department of Government. Section 33 necessarily vests in the legislature the power and prerogative to appoint persons to assist in the discharge of its legislative duties. Comparably Article V of the Constitution vests in the executive department the whole of the executive power. The chief executive power is vested in the Governor. Article V, Section 116. Other executive powers have been vested in the Lt. Governor, the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer and the Auditor of Public Accounts. Clearly the constitutional provisions creating and empowering these executive offices authorize their occupants to appoint persons to assist them in the discharge of their executive duties. These executive powers of appointment are also plenary and may be exercised as the executive wishes, subject only to the power of senate confirmation hereinafter discussed. Section 103 provides nothing to the contrary. In their brief, the appellants state, ... the Court may not have to address the power of appointment issue, depending on its holdings on the main issues of the propriety of the service by legislators on the boards and commissions. The only arguable power of appointment question which may be presented is whether the Speaker of the House can appoint legislators to boards and commissions, and this question may well be subsumed by the Court's holding on whether legislators may in fact serve on the boards and commissions. Page 15, Note 5. We have held the boards and commissions in issue to exercise powers constitutionally vested in the executive department. This would, of course, prohibit legislators from serving on such boards and commissions. Nevertheless we think we should briefly address Clark v. State ex rel. Mississippi State Medical Association, 381 So.2d 1046 (Miss. 1980), inasmuch as it is otherwise contended to vest all appointive powers in the legislature which are not specifically placed within the executive power. We first note that Section 103 of the Constitution addresses the mode of filling vacancies in all offices and not the appointive prerogative itself. The question in Clark, as we view it, was not the right to appoint but rather did the legislature in enacting the mode for filling a vacancy act unconstitutionally? Without citation of authority or, apparently, a review of other sections of our Constitution, the trial court held, It is my opinion that the power here questioned is, by our Constitution, vested in the legislative department of government, and so the questioned statute does not encroach upon the governor's constitutional powers. 381 So.2d at 1050. This Court affirmed the mode of filling vacancies was constitutionally placed within the legislative realm. Both the trial court and this Court approved the mode enacted for filling the particular vacancies. Neither the trial court nor this Court addresses the ultimate right of appointment. Thus, Clark is not authority for the issues presently before the court. We therefore think the appellants' limited reliance on it is without merit. By the same token the attorney general's reliance on Section 99 is misplaced. That section provides that The legislature shall not elect any other than its own officers, state librarian, and United States Senators... . Nothing in this section inhibits the power and prerogatives of the legislature to appoint persons to assist it in performing its legislative functions. Clark holds that the Mississippi Medical Association, a private voluntary association, may appoint three members of the State Board of Health, an agency whose duties are executive. Appointment of persons to an executive agency by a voluntary association with no ongoing vital connection with prerogatives of the legislative or executive departments of government and with no potential of weakening either of the departments does not reach constitutional proportions as do the charges presently in issue. Further, the talk in Clark of general and limited powers of appointment is less than helpful, for it is constitutionally determined that the legislative and executive departments are both vested with general and limited powers of appointment. The legislative department possesses a general power to appoint persons to exercise legislative or quasi-legislative powers. This appointment power is constitutionally limited in that the legislature may not appoint persons to perform functions at the core of the executive or judicial power. Similarly, Article V of the Constitution vests in the officers of the Executive Department the general power to appoint persons to assist them in carrying out their duties. We find this power of appointment at the core of Article V provisions creating and empowering the executive offices in our government. Therefore, we are of the opinion the power of the executive department to appoint executive subordinates is exclusive and legislative encroachment is prohibited by the language of Article I. Accordingly, we declare the following statutes unconstitutional insofar as they mandate legislative appointments to executive offices: Mississippi Code Annotated, §§ 27-103-1 (Supp. 1983); 29-5-1 (1972); 57-1-3 (Supp. 1983); XX-XX-XXX (1972); 25-53-7 (1972); 25-9-109 (Supp. 1983); and 49-5-61 (Supp. 1983).