Opinion ID: 1834622
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the limitation violates the doctrine of separation of powers.

Text: Unlike the federal constitution, the state constitution specifically incorporates the doctrine of separation of powers: Section 1. The powers of the government of the state of Mississippi shall be divided into three distinct departments, and each of them confided to a separate magistracy, to-wit: those which are legislative to one, those which are judicial to another, and those which are executive to another. Section 2. No person or collection of persons, being one or belonging to one of these departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others... . Miss.Const. Art. 1 §§ 1, 2 (1890). The doctrine of separation of powers as expressed in the 1890 Constitution cannot be overemphasized. See, Alexander v. State, by and through Allain, 441 So.2d 1329, 1335 (Miss. 1983); see also, Dye v. State, ex rel. Hale , 507 So.2d 332, 342-3, n. 17 (Miss. 1987). At the heart of this doctrine is that no officer of one department of government may exercise power at the core of the power constitutionally committed to one of the other departments. Hall v. State, 539 So.2d 1338, 1345 (Miss. 1989). Stated another way, since the whole of the legislative power has been vested in the legislature ... [and] the whole of the executive has been vested in a separate and distinct [executive] department of our government, then the remaining branch, the judiciary, must remain independent and cannot be curtailed by any of the other two branches. Alexander, 441 So.2d at 1339. Since Newell v. State, 308 So.2d 71, 76 (Miss. 1975), this Court has expressed time and time again its inherent power to make rules that affect the Court. See, e.g., In re Mississippi Judicial Information System, 533 So.2d 1110 (Miss. 1988) (establishing judicial information system); Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Ins. Co. v. Holland, 469 So.2d 55, 62 (Miss. 1984) (Anderson, J., specially concurring, joined by Prather, Robertson and Sullivan, JJ.,) City of Mound Bayou v. Ray Collins Construction Co., 457 So.2d 337, 342 (Miss. 1984) (Supreme Court rule supersedes statute); Glenn v. Herring, 415 So.2d 695, 696 (Miss. 1982) (statute requiring disposition of cases by judges within six months unconstitutional); Jackson v. State, 337 So.2d 1242, 1253 (Miss. 1976) (since death penalty statute was unconstitutional, Court promulgated guidelines for bifurcated trial in capital cases); See also, State v. Caldwell, 492 So.2d 575, 576 (Miss. 1986), judgment vacated, 479 U.S. 1075, 107 S.Ct. 1269, 94 L.Ed.2d 130 (1987) (court has inherent power to procedurally control its business.); Riely v. State, 562 So.2d 1206, 1211 (Miss. 1990) (statute is constitutional on its face as construed and complemented by this opinion). Moreover, this Court has adopted the principle that even if a law or procedure is efficient, convenient and useful in facilitating functions of government it cannot be spared when it is contrary to the constitution. Alexander, 441 So.2d at 1339 (quoting INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919, 944, 103 S.Ct. 2764, 2780-81, 77 L.Ed.2d 317, 340 (1983)).