Opinion ID: 2188935
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: governmental powers and branches

Text: It is beyond debate that a senator is a member of the legislative branch of the state and exercises the powers of that branch. The issue thus becomes: Is an assistant professor at a state college a member of the executive branch? Respondent argues that state college assistant professors are not executive officers within the meaning of present Neb. Const. art. IV, § 1, since they are not named in the article nor are they the heads of such other executive departments as set forth herein or as may be established by law. In this he is quite correct. Assistant professors of state colleges are not constitutional executive officers. That does not, however, mean that they are not subject to the prohibition of article II. As noted earlier, article II is not limited in its application to officers, constitutional or otherwise, but extends to employees as well. If the state colleges are part of the executive branch, then article II prohibits respondent from maintaining his position at the college while he serves as a member of the Legislature. When the 1875 Constitution was adopted, the executive branch was defined in then article V, § 1, in terms of named constitutional officers: The executive department shall consist of a governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor of public accounts, treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, attorney-general, and commissioner of public lands and buildings.... (Emphasis supplied). If article II is read in light of this language, it would appear that in 1875 a person or collection of persons being [the executive department] would have meant those individuals named in then article V, § 1. Had the Constitution remained unchanged since 1875, our inquiry on this question might have ended here. Our task is complicated, however, by subsequent amendments to then article V, § 1. In 1920, article V, § 1, was amended and renumbered as article IV, § 1, and read, in relevant part: The executive officers of the state shall be the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of the State, Auditor of Public Accounts, Commissioner of Public Lands and Buildings, Treasurer, Attorney General, Superintendent of Public Instruction and the heads of such other executive departments as may be established by law. (Emphasis supplied.) In this version, the executive branch is no longer defined; instead, it states who the executive officers shall be and provides that additional executive agencies may be created by the Legislature. These changes were made in order to permit the creation of new executive agencies if and when the need should arise, see Nebraska Constitutions of 1886, 1871 & 1875 and Proposed Amendments Submitted to the People September 21, 1920, at 65, 67 (Nebraska Historical and Political Science Series Bull. 13, 1920), and appear to have been adopted in response to opinions announced by this court to the effect that the Legislature was without authority to create new executive agencies. See, e.g., In re Railroad Commissioners, 15 Neb. 679, 50 N.W. 276 (1884); State v. Porter, 69 Neb. 203, 95 N.W. 769 (1903); Iams v. Mellor, 93 Neb. 438, 140 N.W. 784 (1913). From this, it must be inferred that the old Constitution's definition of the executive branch was considered too restrictive and failed to meet the demands of a growing state. In 1936, the Commissioner of Public Lands and Buildings was deleted from article IV, § 1, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction was deleted in 1952. Except for these changes, the relevant language has remained the same since 1920. In Swanson v. State, 132 Neb. 82, 271 N.W. 264 (1937), we held that the 1936 amendment omitting the office of Commissioner of Public Lands and Buildings, while depriving the office of its status as a constitutional office, did not abolish the office. Since the composition of the executive branch is no longer expressly defined in the Constitution, we must look to case law for guidance in determining what it is. To review, article II divides the powers of government into three distinct branches, the legislative, executive, and judicial, and provides that no person or collection of persons being one of these branches shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except as hereinafter expressly permitted or directed.  (Emphasis supplied). Nothing in the Constitution expressly, or even impliedly, directs that the prohibitions of article II not be applied to state senators. The inquiry thus turns to whether Neb. Const. art. VII, § 13, providing for the government of the state colleges, falls within the exception to article II. We have determined that Neb. Const. art. XV, § 9, authorizing the Industrial Commission with administrative, legislative, and judicial powers, was within this exception to article II. See School Dist. of Seward Education Assn. v. School Dist. of Seward, 188 Neb. 772, 199 N.W.2d 752 (1972). We have likewise held that Neb. Const. art. IV, § 20, creating the State Railway Commission (now the Public Service Commission), which has legislative, executive, and judicial powers, is an exception to article II. See, Swanson v. Sorensen, 181 Neb. 312, 148 N.W.2d 197 (1967); In re Lincoln Traction Co., 103 Neb. 229, 171 N.W. 192 (1919). We have also found that the former State Department of Education could be given duties that were legislative in character because the constitutional provision authorizing it, Neb. Const. art. VII, § 14 (since repealed), fit within the exception. See School Dist. No. 8 v. State Board of Education, 176 Neb. 722, 127 N.W.2d 458 (1964). School Dist. No. 8, supra, School Dist. of Seward Education Assn., supra, and In re Lincoln Traction Co., supra , dealt with the institutional aspect of the separation of powers doctrine. These cases involved challenges to the agencies' exercise of legislative and judicial powers and not individuals holding positions in more than one governmental branch. While we have determined that the constitutional provisions authorizing these agencies expressly direct or permit them to exercise the powers of more than one branch, nothing in the opinions indicates that members of the agencies are excepted from the personnel aspect of article II. Like the two school district cases, Swanson v. Sorensen, supra , did not address the dual position ban of article II. In that case, Swanson, the duly elected state Treasurer, brought a quo warranto action against Sorensen, the incumbent Treasurer, who had refused to relinquish his office on the ground that Swanson was ineligible for the office because he had been a member of the railway commission when he ran for office. Sorensen's claim was based on the prior provision of article IV, § 2, that [n]one of the officers mentioned in this article shall be eligible to any other state office during the period for which they have been elected or appointed.... The Swanson court concluded that because the constitutional amendment creating the railway commission was not adopted as an amendment to article IV but was simply inserted into that article by the compilers at a later date, the commissioners were not among the officers mentioned in article IV, § 2. An exception to institutional application of the separation of powers doctrine does not imply an exception to the dual personnel ban. While it may be necessary for certain agencies to share attributes with the executive, legislative, and judicial branches in order for those agencies to carry out the function assigned to them in the Constitution, those needs do not require the agency to employ personnel who exercise power in another governmental branch. Thus, we need not determine whether the government of the state colleges is free of the institutional prohibition of article II; we need merely determine whether the state colleges are properly considered to be part of the executive branch. Although we have neither been directed to nor found any case explicitly stating that the state colleges are part of the executive branch, there are but three branches, and the state colleges clearly are not part of the judicial or legislative branches. See, Swanson v. State, supra ; State v. Furse, 89 Neb. 652, 656, 131 N.W. 1030, 1031 (1911) (the office of railway commissioner is, under the constitution, to be classed as an executive office. Of this we think there can be no doubt, as it can neither be said to be legislative, nor judicial, and the three classes are the only ones given by that instrument). The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska performs a function for the university which is identical to that of the Board of Trustees of the Nebraska State Colleges. While the Board of Regents is an independent body charged with the power and responsibility to manage and operate the University, Board of Regents v. Exon, 199 Neb. 146, 148, 256 N.W.2d 330, 332 (1977), it is, nevertheless, an administrative or executive agency of the state, see Board of Regents v. County of Lancaster, 154 Neb. 398, 48 N.W.2d 221 (1951). As the regents are part of the executive branch, so, too, are the trustees. Since the Board of Trustees, which governs the state colleges, is part of the executive branch, those who work for those colleges likewise are members of that branch. Respondent, as an assistant professor at the college, is thus a member of the executive branch within the meaning of article II.