Opinion ID: 1843606
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Courts' Power to State What the Law Is

Text: The power, and indeed the duty, of courts to state what the law is seem to be universally accepted. Chief Justice John Marshall, in Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 177, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803), interpreting the power of Federal judges to interpret the Federal Constitution, wrote: It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases, must of necessity expound and interpret that rule. That principle of judicial review stated by Chief Justice Marshall was cited in Opinion of the Justices No. 338. I believe it answers the state defendants' jurisdictional arguments, and I agree with the result reached on the Liability Phase of this case. I now specifically state the reasons for my disagreement with the conclusion reached in the main opinion that suspends the implementation of the Remedy Plan for a period of one year to allow the Governor and the Legislature to formulate a remedy of their own. Although the Legislature might during that year undertake to comply with the trial court's order, it appears to me that what Justice Sayre said in Vincent is instructive: Necessarily something must be left to the enlightened discretion of the Legislature which, within constitutional limits, levies taxes and apportions them to the various needs of the state. No doubt a liberal system of public education will be so framed as to give every child between the ages of seven and twenty-one years a chance, but, when details of school management are considered, something must be left to legislative discretion. 222 Ala. at 217, 131 So. at 894. If we were dealing with such fundamental rights as liberty of conscience, and other procedural democratic rights like the right to vote, which are inalienable in our constitutional democracy, I would consider affirming the Remedy Order, because I believe courts have the power to protect fundamental constitutional rights by every means possible. However, even assuming that the plaintiffs' rights in this case were fundamental, which I do not, I would question the necessity for so detailed a Remedy Order as the one issued here. As Justice Clopton said in Ellsberry v. Seay, when details of school management are considered, something must be left to legislative discretion. 222 Ala. at 217, 131 So. at 894. Traditionally, courts have been reluctant to issue orders to a coordinate and independent branch of government, and even though I recognize that similar plaintiffs in other states have successfully sought the same type of relief that the plaintiffs seek here, my core belief in the doctrine of the separation of powers is so strong that I believe that the Governor and the Legislature have the duty and the obligation to carry out what the judicial branch has declared to be their constitutional obligations, and if those branches of government carry out their responsibilities, a conflict between coequal and coordinate branches of government would never occur.