Opinion ID: 2596737
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: A Demonstrable Textual Constitutional Commitment of the Issue to a Coordinate Political Department

Text: In considering this first factor, the Supreme Court noted that: Deciding whether a matter has in any measure been committed by the Constitution to another branch of government . . . is itself a delicate exercise in constitutional interpretation, and is a responsibility of this Court as ultimate interpreter of the Constitution. To demonstrate this requires no less than to analyze representative cases and to infer from them the analytical threads that make up the political question doctrine. Baker, 369 U.S. at 211, 82 S.Ct. 691. Therefore, in weighing the first factor we must look to both the exact constitutional language in question and to the prior cases which offer an interpretation of that language. The constitutional language controlling this issue reads: The general assembly shall, as soon as practicable, provide for the establishment and maintenance of a thorough and uniform system of free public schools throughout the state. . . . Colo. Const. art. IX, § 2. [4] Thus, on its face, the plain language the general assembly shall controls the argument, and a review of precedent supports this conclusion. See, e.g., Washington County Bd. of Equalization v. Petron Dev. Co., 109 P.3d 146, 149 (Colo.2005). Moreover, our precedent in Lujan strongly suggests that this issue is constitutionally committed to the General Assembly. Interpreting the same thorough and uniform education clause at issue today, we held: While it is clearly the province and duty of the judiciary to determine what the law is, the fashioning of a constitutional system for financing elementary and secondary public education in Colorado is not only the proper function of the General Assembly, but this function is expressly mandated by the Colorado Constitution. Lujan, 649 P.2d at 1025 (citing United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974); Colo. Const. art. IX, § 2). In short, the plain language of the constitutional provision coupled with our precedent strongly suggest that the issue before us has been constitutionally committed to the legislative branch.