Opinion ID: 2822015
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: executive acquiescence

Text: The majority also considers whether the Legislature intruded into the sphere of the commission’s authority in enacting the challenged provisions of 2011 PA 264. Again, in assuming without deciding that pensions are conditions of employment over which the commission has plenary authority, the majority concludes that SERA itself is an intrusion into the commission’s authority and that the challenged provisions are more of the same. Faced with the Legislature’s violation of the separation of powers, the majority turns to the idea of executive acquiescence, concluding that the commission acquiesced to “the Legislature’s presumed violation of the separation of powers when it made SERA applicable to civil servants[.]” Ante at 19. In support of this claim, the majority cites Civil Service Rule 5-13, which provides that “[a] classified employee is eligible for retirement benefits as provided by law.” Because the law regarding retirement benefits now encompasses the challenged provisions enacted in 2011 PA 264, the majority concludes that the commission cannot now revoke its acquiescence without itself 3 See Judicial Attorneys Ass’n v Michigan, 459 Mich 291, 303-304; 586 NW2d 894 (1998) (holding certain statutory provisions enacted by the Legislature to be unconstitutional under the separation of powers doctrine and therefore struck). 4 violating the separation of powers doctrine by directing the Legislature to strike these provisions. In support of the idea of executive acquiescence, the majority relies on a series of cases that considered the concept of judicial acquiescence. This line of cases dealt with judicial acquiescence to legislative action. In Perin v Peuler, 373 Mich 531, 541; 130 NW2d 4 (1964), this Court first defined the scope of judicial rulemaking by stating that [t]he function of enacting and amending judicial rules of practice and procedure has been committed exclusively to this Court (Const 1908, art 7, § 5; Const 1963, art 6, § 5); a function with which the legislature may not meddle or interfere save as the Court may acquiesce and adopt for retention at judicial will. However, this Court recognized a limit to this general grant of constitutional authority: “[A]s is evident from the plain language of [Const 1963] art 6, § 5, this Court’s constitutional rule-making authority extends only to matters of practice and procedure.” McDougall v Schanz, 461 Mich 15, 27; 597 NW2d 148 (1999). In distinguishing between substantive rules and rules of practice and procedure, the McDougall Court found that the Perin Court had “overstated the reach of our rule-making authority,” explaining that the distinction between rules of substance and procedure “is one that was not only advocated by recognized scholars contemporaneously with the development and passage of our 1963 Constitution, but one that . . . the drafters contemplated.” Id. at 2930. The McDougall majority thus stands for the proposition that this Court’s constitutional grant of authority to promulgate rules is not a grant of plenary authority. Although this Court has “exclusive rule-making authority in matters of practice and 5 procedure,” id. at 26, the McDougall majority was primarily concerned with making clear that this Court does not have such authority with regard to substantive rules. In contrast, there is no such limitation on the commission’s authority over conditions of employment in either the plain language of the Constitution or in the minds of the ratifiers, whose clear intent was to remove the classified civil service from legislative interference. 4 Moreover, McDougall is inapplicable to the question of even judicial acquiescence, let alone executive, as this Court recognized that it “is not authorized to enact . . . rules that establish, abrogate, or modify the substantive law.” Id. at 27. The holding in McDougall thus concerned whether the Legislature had enacted a substantive or a procedural rule; in other words, because this Court does not have the constitutional authority to promulgate substantive rules, there is no question of judicial acquiescence where the Court attempts to act outside of the bounds of its sphere of authority. In contrast to the situation presented in McDougall, the commission’s authority over conditions of employment is plenary; any legislative incursion into this sphere is itself a violation of the separation of powers doctrine. The commission’s involvement, however minimal, in the enactment of SERA and amendments thereafter speaks nothing to this underlying constitutional principle. 5 4 See Council No 11, 408 Mich at 397-401 (detailing the history of the civil service system in Michigan). 5 “The practical necessity for the judiciary to reach accommodation with those who fund the courts on an annual basis, however, cannot, as a constitutional matter, be used as an excuse to diminish the judiciary’s essential authority over its own personnel.” Judicial Attorneys Ass’n, 459 Mich at 302-303. 6 The majority finally relies on Judicial Attorneys Ass’n v Michigan, 459 Mich 291; 586 NW2d 894 (1998). In that case, this Court held that statutory provisions that designated counties as the employers of judicial employees violated the separation of powers doctrine. Id. at 302-303. In so holding, this Court acknowledged that practical necessity (in particular, the lack of the ability to appropriate funds) drove the judiciary to reach certain accommodations with the Legislature. Id. However, this Court specifically found that this prior acquiescence could not “be used as an excuse to diminish the judiciary’s essential authority over its own personnel.” Id. at 303. 6 Judicial Attorneys Ass’n thus stands for the proposition that prior acquiescence alone, especially in the face of practical considerations such as the lack of appropriation authority, does not waive one branch’s right to contest the intrusion of another branch in the future. 7 The majority holds that the commission “may adopt rules [like Civ Serv R 5-13] that acquiesce in a statute that allegedly intrudes on its sphere of authority, as it has here.” 6 Although “[t]he judicial branch may determine on its own authority, for practical reasons, to share with the legislative branch some limited employment-related decision making upon determining that such sharing is in the best interests of the judicial branch and the public as a whole[,] . . . [t]he constitutionality of an act must rest on the provisions of the act itself, and not on the compensating actions of those affected by the act.” Id. at 303-304 (emphasis omitted). 7 In holding that a legislative veto provision enacted by Congress was unconstitutional, the Supreme Court declined to find significant the fact that Congress had previously enacted hundreds of such provisions in prior decades that had gone unchallenged: “Convenience and efficiency are not the primary objectives—or the hallmarks—of democratic government and our inquiry is sharpened rather than blunted by the fact that congressional veto provisions are appearing with increasing frequency in statutes which delegate authority to executive and independent agencies[.]” Immigration and Naturalization Serv v Chadha, 462 US 919, 944; 103 S Ct 2764; 77 L Ed 2d 317 (1983). 7 Ante at 20. This is in line with the observation in Judicial Attorneys Ass’n that one branch may decide, for practical reasons, to acquiesce to another branch’s involvement. See Judicial Attorneys Ass’n, 459 Mich at 304 (“Separation of powers does not preclude what has proven to be the rule rather than the exception in the operation of Michigan’s trial courts: cooperation, communication, and accommodation between trial courts and their funding units in their exercise of shared responsibility to the public. The philosophical underpinnings of the separation of powers doctrine, Michigan case law, and common sense all point toward such cooperation.”). However, “[t]he constitutionality of an act must rest on the provisions of the act itself, and not on the compensating actions of those affected by the act.” Id. Put simply—one branch’s acquiescence, however affirmative, cannot render an unconstitutional act constitutional. 8 That the commission has historically worked to reach an accommodation with the Legislature in the enactment and subsequent amendments of SERA to facilitate cooperation among different branches of government does not strip it of the ability to object to the challenged provisions of 2011 PA 264. Mere acquiescence cannot cure a violation of the separation of powers doctrine. If pensions do fall within the commission’s sphere of authority, the commission cannot 8 Justice MCCORMACK finds it meaningful that the commission, “as the affected constitutional actor,” is not party to this lawsuit and has not officially objected to the Legislature’s actions. Ante at 2. However, because the commission and the Legislature cannot acquiesce to a violation of the Michigan Constitution and thereby cure it, I do not believe this distinction is of any importance in my analysis. 8 have the ability to waive their constitutional grant of plenary authority. 9 Although the majority suggests that the commission would itself violate the separation of powers doctrine by directing the Legislature to exercise its legislative powers in striking the challenged provisions of 2011 PA 264, I respectfully disagree. Instead, I would conclude that plaintiffs are merely requesting that we strike the unconstitutional provisions of the amended SERA, not directing the Legislature to revive a “prior version of the law [that] no longer exists.” Ante at 20. 10 Because the challenged provisions of 2011 PA 264 constitute violations of the separation of powers doctrine, I would hold that they are not properly part of SERA.