Opinion ID: 1095462
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: discretionary versus mandatory acts

Text: With regard to defendants Logan and Knox, the majority attempts to make a distinction between a discretionary act and a mandatory act and further holds that mandatory acts do not violate Section 109. Again, I must dissent because I believe that such a distinction cannot be made as Section 109 does not contain or implicitly allow such a distinction. In its discussion of the phantom difference that is supposed to exist between the discretionary act and the mandatory act, one cannot help but glean from the majority's view that a public officer may violate the constitution when he has no choice in the matter. The language of the majority implies that this has something to do with voting. However, a violation of Section 109 is not contingent upon whether Logan's vote to levy a tax which would be used in part to pay his salary was either discretionary or mandatory. Voting has nothing to do with Section 109. The violation occurred because Logan was a member of a board which authorized a contract with the State or any political subdivision which he had a direct or indirect interest in and which was executed during his term of office. Merely being a member of the public body when the contract was authorized is enough to invoke the prohibition of Section 109. To say that Mr. Logan and others of his class cannot be penalized for voting affirmatively on a matter in which a court decree or statute gave him no choice is to ignore the fact that Article IV, Section 109, of the Constitution, which is superior to both the chancery court decree and the statute, also gave him no choice. That which the constitution specifically forbids cannot be allowed because a court or legislative act mandates it. If this were so then this case would be moot, for the legislature has already authorized the violations of Section 109 by statute. See Miss.Code. Ann., § 25-4-105(3)(a) (Supp. 1985). Further, this would apply equally to the majority's attempt again to make a distinction between discretionary and mandatory authority with regard to defendant Knox. Thus, I would hold that each of these defendants violated Section 109 regardless of whether the votes they cast or the authority they had was characterized as discretionary or mandatory. Any attempt to make a distinction between discretionary and a mandatory act or authority is fruitless. Had the framers of the Constitution of 1890 wished to make that distinction, they had the opportunity to do so and did not. The people have chosen not to make such a distinction. It is unwise for this Court to make that distinction now. C.