Opinion ID: 1766983
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: is this legislation unconstitutionally vague?

Text: The Secretary of State contends that the discretion granted him by § 29-15-7 is ambiguous and unconstitutionally vague, and in direct violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 3, § 14 of the Mississippi Constitution. The due process required by the Federal Constitution is the same due process required by the Mississippi Constitution. Mississippi Power Co. v. Goudy, 459 So.2d 257, 275 (Miss. 1984). A statute is not unconstitutionally void for vagueness when an ordinary person of common intelligence upon reading it could understand what was allowed and what was not. Meeks v. Tallahatchie County, 513 So.2d 563, 566 (Miss. 1987). In the present case, the Legislature granted the Secretary of State discretion in revising the preliminary map following a sixty day comment/documentation period. The procedure set out by the Act explicitly ensures that the affected parties are heard, either through the comment period, administrative negotiations with the Secretary of State, or by seeking judicial remedies within the three year period following publication of the final map. The mere fact that the discretion granted the Secretary of State could be interpreted in different lights, does not automatically render it vague. See United States v. Dunkel, 900 F.2d 105, 108 (7th Cir.1990). The procedure established by the tidelands legislation has a reasonable relation to the governmental purpose of establishing the boundary of public trust lands and as such is not vague.