Opinion ID: 2229506
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: Lieutenant Governor Sanstead asks that this Court exercise its original jurisdiction under § 86 of the North Dakota Constitution and issue an Original Prerogative Writ. Only the apparent conflict between Senate Rules 26 and 55, as amended, and § 77 of the North Dakota Constitution is alleged since the amendment of Senate Rules 26 and 55 there had been no tie vote in the North Dakota Senate on any measure where the Lieutenant Governor had attempted to cast a tie-breaking vote; nor had there been such a tie vote when, in compliance with the said amended Rules, the Lieutenant Governor had abstained from voting as of the time of oral arguments before this Court. This Court has long held that proceedings before this Court must involve an actual controversy of a justiciable character, between parties having adverse interests, and that we may not decide abstract legal questions or render purely advisory opinions. Section 94, N.D.Const.; State ex rel. Olsness v. McCarthy, 53 N.D. 609, 207 N.W. 436, 437 (1926); Langer v. State, 69 N.D. 129, 284 N.W. 238, 251 (1939); and State ex rel. Johnson v. Baker, 74 N.D. 244, 21 N.W.2d 355, 358 (1945). In State ex rel. Olsness v. McCarthy, supra 207 N.W. at 437, this Court said: The question is merely an abstract one, and arises solely because there is a disagreement between two officers as to what rule of law shall apply when an actual transaction does arise. As we view the case, this court is asked to deliver an advisory opinion. This we may not do. The courts of this state are authorized only to determine questions of law as they arise in actual controversies, and may not properly decide abstract legal questions or render purely advisory opinions. In Langer, supra 284 N.W. at 250, this Court, quoting Judge Cardozo in Self-Insurers' Association et al. v. State Industrial Commission (In re Workmen's Comp. Fund), 224 N.Y. 13, 16, 119 N.E. 1027, 1028 (1918), stated: `The function of the courts is to determine controversies between litigants. [Citation of authorities.] They do not give advisory opinions. The giving of such opinions is not the exercise of the judicial function.    In the United States no such duty attaches to the judicial office in the absence of express provision of the Constitution.    In this state the Legislature is without power to charge the courts with the performance of nonjudicial duties.' As was pointed out during the North Dakota Constitutional Debates of 1889, at which Convention a proposed advisory opinion clause for our Constitution was considered and rejected: . . . we will have in this State an officer designated as the Attorney General, whose peculiar business it will be to advise the State officers and the Legislature when called upon. . . . the Attorney General is the officer to advise the civil officers, and when questions come before the Supreme Court, that court is then untrammeled. Proceedings and Debates of the First Constitutional Convention of North Dakota (1889), pp. 230-231. Thus, before this Court can find jurisdiction, we must determine that we would be performing more than an advisory function as was carried out by the Attorney General on February 19, 1945, and by the Attorney General on February 18, 1975, in their opinions on this subject. We find the facts of the instant proceeding do constitute a justiciable controversy. The Lieutenant Governor instituted the present proceedings to challenge the restraint placed by the State Senate of the 45th Legislative Assembly upon his office as President of the Senate. Such controversy needs no further factual development for our analysis. There is a present and existing conflict between the Attorney General's opinion of February 18, 1975, that a lieutenant governor may cast the deciding vote on the final passage of a bill in the Senate [1] and the present Senate Rules 26 and 55, which were amended during the December 1976 organizational session of the 45th Legislative Assembly by the Senate and adopted, as amended, which Rules prohibit the Lieutenant Governor from voting except on procedural matters. The question is no longer abstract and becomes one of reality with the adoption of the amended Senate Rules 26 and 55. [2] To require that the Lieutenant Governor actually attempt to cast a tie-breaking vote on the final passage of a bill in open and direct defiance of such Senate Rules would be absurd such action could conceivably result in the removal of the Lieutenant Governor from the Chair in the Senate and in forcing the State Senate to hold the Lieutenant Governor in contempt of the State Senatethus creating in the upper House of our Legislature the chaos and confusion our system of government is designed to prevent. We find the instant proceeding appropriate for the exercise of this Court's original jurisdiction pursuant to § 86 of the Constitution of the State of North Dakota. Section 86 grants this Court authority to issue writs, in the exercise of its prerogative jurisdiction over questions involving the sovereignty of the State, its prerogatives, or the liberties of its people. State ex rel. Moore v. Archibald, 5 N.D. 359, 66 N.W. 234 (1896); State ex rel. DeKrey v. Peterson, 174 N.W.2d 95, 98 (N.D.1970), and cases cited. We find that the exceptional circumstances surrounding the instant proceeding directly affect not only the elected officials, but also the integrity of the law-making process of our Legislature. We make such finding based on the following factors: (1) the Lieutenant Governor openly declared his intent to cast a tie-breaking vote if the members of the State Senate are equally divided on the final consideration on a bill; (2) members of the State Senate have openly declared an intent to challenge any attempt by the Lieutenant Governor to vote on the final consideration on a bill; (3) the 45th Legislative Assembly is currently in session; (4) the legal status of any bill passed by the State Senate with a tie-breaking vote cast by the Lieutenant Governor would be in doubt; and (5) it is in the best interests of the State of North Dakota that a direct confrontation between the Lieutenant Governor and the State Senate be avoided, so as to assure an orderly law-making process during the term of the 45th Legislative Assembly. Because § 48 of the Constitution of the State of North Dakota provides: Section 48. Each house shall have the power to determine the rules of proceedings and punish its members or other persons for contempt or disorderly behavior in its presence . . ., it might be argued that this Court's assumption of jurisdiction would produce a potentially embarrassing confrontation between equal and coordinate branches of our state government. We disagree. Rules governing proceedings in the State Senate must not violate or contravene the provisions of the Constitution of the State of North Dakota. It is the responsibility of this Court to act as the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution of the State of North Dakota. The United States Supreme Court, nearly one hundred years ago, in Kilbourn v. Thompson, 103 U.S. 168, 199, 26 L.Ed. 377 (1881), quoted with approval from the case of Burnham v. Morrissey, 14 Gray 226, 80 Mass.Rep. 226 (1859): Especially is it competent and proper for this court to consider whether its proceedings are in conformity with the Constitution and laws, because, living under a written constitution, no branch or department of the government is supreme; and it is the province and duty of the judicial department to determine in cases regularly brought before them, whether the powers of any branch of the government, and even those of the legislature in the enactment of laws, have been exercised in conformity to the Constitution; and if they have not, to treat their acts as null and void. Our consideration of State Senate Rules 26 and 55 requires only that the Constitution of the State of North Dakota be interpreted, in the instant case. This determination falls squarely within the traditional role accorded this Court. Even a question of whether a matter has, in any manner, been committed by the Constitution to another branch of government, or whether the action of that branch exceeds whatever authority has been committed to it, is itself a delicate exercise in constitutional interpretation and is a responsibility of this Court as ultimate interpreter of the Constitution of the State of North Dakota. Verry v. Trenbeath, 148 N.W.2d 567, 570 (N.D.1967); see Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486, 514-521, 89 S.Ct. 1944, 23 L.Ed.2d 491 (1969).