Opinion ID: 2394238
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Separation of Powers as to Functions

Text: It is with this constitutional grounding that we discuss our cases, keeping in mind that some of the later cases that were, to some extent, based upon precedent, were based upon precedents that were creatures of the times in which the early cases were decided. What was true under the Form of Government or Bill of Rights in 1776, may not be correct under the 1837 amendment or the Maryland Constitutions of 1851, 1864 and 1867 or the present Declaration of Rights. It has not always been recognized by the Court or by the commentators, that what may have been said or held when the Constitution and Bill of Rights of 1776, or other of the specific amendments and constitutions were being considered, may not be of direct precedential value when the present Constitution, that of 1867, a constitution in which power of the Executive is returned and the 1891 amendment conferring veto power, is being considered. Although the cases (and the treatises) sometimes overlap as to functions and the appointment/termination processes, we shall first concentrate on the holdings relating primarily to the usurpation of and improper granting of general powers. The case sub judice is a rare case where it is alleged that the Legislative department of government is attempting to exercise what are essentially executive functions, and doing so not only in disregard for the general precepts of the duties and powers of the respective branches of government, but in violation of express provisions of the Maryland Constitution, including, but not limited to, Section 8 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights and Article II, งง 1, 9 and 15 of the Maryland Constitution, and in the process denying to the appellant due process of law. [43] Few of our prior cases have involved conflicts between the Legislative and Executive branches of government. But, we have often been obliged to determine when the Legislative Department has either attempted to exercise a judicial function or has passed statutes attempting to confer on the Judicial Department, duties of a legislative or executive nature. Generally, we have resisted those efforts. The Declaration of Rights expressly establishes (or continues the concept first created by the Bill of Rights of the 1776 Constitution and subsequent amendments and constitutions) the Separation of Powers concept, as an explicit Maryland Constitutional command (in contrast with the creation of such concept by implication in the Federal Constitution). Article II, ง 1 of the Constitution expressly directs that [t]he executive power of the State shall be vested in a Governor, Article II, ง 9 of the Constitution of Maryland provides that the Governor executes the laws, and Article II, ง 15 expressly confers on the Executive the power to terminate officers he or she has appointed for a term of years, based upon incompetency or misconduct. Article 8 of the Declaration of Rights expressly established the Separation of Powers Doctrine as part of the organic law of Maryland. Shortly after the American Revolution, in the case of Whittington v. Polk, 1 H. & J. 236 (1802) (when the 1776 Constitution was in effect), a case in which the Legislature restructured certain non-judicial courts in such a fashion that the office holders lost their jobs, we addressed the general relationship of the respective branches of government โ but we did so at a time when the Maryland Constitution made the Governor a creature of the Legislature. Even under the circumstances of that time, the Court did not recognize the extent of the power the Legislature's spokesman claims in the case sub judice. We said then: The Bill of Rights and form of government compose the Constitution of Maryland, and is a compact made by the people of Maryland among themselves, through the agency of a convention selected and appointed for that important purpose. This compact is founded on the principle that the people being the source of power, all government of right originates from them. In this compact the people have distributed the powers of government in such manner as they thought would best conduce to the promotion of the general happiness; and for the attainment of that all-important object have, among other provisions, judiciously deposited the legislative, judicial and executive, in separate and distinct hands, subjecting the functionaries of these powers to such limitations and restrictions as they thought fit to prescribe. The Legislature, being the creature of the Constitution, and acting within a circumscribed sphere, is not omnipotent, and cannot rightfully exercise any power, but that which is derived from that instrument. . . . The power of determining finally on the validity of the acts of the Legislature cannot reside with the Legislature, because such power would defeat and render nugatory, all the limitations and restrictions on the authority of the Legislature, contained in the Bill of Rights and form of government, and they would become judges of the validity of their own acts, which would establish a despotism, and subvert that great principle of the Constitution, which declares that the powers of making, judging, and executing the law, shall be separate and distinct from each other. . . . The three great powers or departments of government are independent of each other, and the Legislature, as such, can claim no superiority or pre-eminence over the other two. Id. at 242-45. In 1829, this Court further described the constitutional functioning of the government of Maryland in the often cited divorce and support case of Crane v. Meginnis, 1 G. & J. 463 (1829), in which the Legislature attempted to perform judicial acts. There we discussed what the Court then referred to, under the circumstances then present, i.e., the Constitution of 1776 which made the Governor a creation of the Legislature, as a predominant power when we stated: The Constitution of this State, composed if [sic] the Declaration of Rights and form of government, is the immediate work of the people, in their sovereign capacity, and contains standing evidences of their permanent will. It portions out supreme power, and assigns it to different departments, prescribing to each the authority it may exercise, and specifying that from the exercise of which it must abstain. The public functionaries move then in a subordinate character, and must conform to the fundamental laws or prescripts of the creating power. When they transcend defined limits, their acts are unauthorized, and being without warrant, are necessarily to be viewed as nullities. . . . The legislative department is nearest to the source of power, and is manifestly the predominant branch of the government.[ [44] ] Its authority is extensive and complex, and being less susceptible on that account of limitation, is more liable to be exceeded in practice. Its acts, out of the limit of authority, assuming the garb of law, will be pronounced nullities by the Courts of justice. . . . Crane, 1 G. & J. at 472. The Court went on to opine: The enactment of the third section of the Act of 1823, being in our opinion an exercise by the Legislature of judicial power, our attention will now be engaged for a short time with the enquiry whether the exercise by the Legislature of judicial power in the passage of a law, is repugnant to the Constitution. The decision of this point must depend upon the sound construction of the sixth section of the Bill of Rights, which says, `that the legislative, executive and judicial powers of government, ought to be forever separate and distinct from each other.' This political maxim made its appearance, in some form, in all the State Constitutions formed about the time of the war of the Revolution, and is said to have been borrowed by them of the celebrated Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, vol. 1, p. 181. . . . . . . [W]e have now to add our perfect conviction, that the exercise by the Legislature of judicial power in the passage of a law, is repugnant to the Constitution. Id. at 475-77. In a case involving the counting of votes in respect to the ratification of the Constitution of 1864, Miles v. Bradford, 22 Md. 170 (1864), we stated: By our organic law,[ [45] ] the powers of government are distributed into Legislative, Executive and Judicial. We are admonished by the Declaration of Rights, that these powers `ought to be forever separate and distinct from each other, and no person exercising the functions of one of said departments, shall assume or discharge the duties of any other.' Id. at 183. Also at issue in the case sub judice is the question of whether incumbent officeholders may assert interests in the office they hold. We considered a similar issue in one of our old cases. The case of Magruder v. Swann, 25 Md. 173 (1866), involved a dispute that had arisen as to the granting of a commission to a person to sit as a judge. The issue occurred because of a judicial vacancy during the period when a new constitution was being adopted. The new constitution reduced the number of counties in a particular circuit. In an ensuing period the Governor had appointed a replacement judge and another individual had won an election to a seat on the bench in the new circuit. Thus, there were two claimants for a single seat, one by election and one by appointment by the Governor. The complaining party sought possession of the judicial seat, which the incumbent refused to vacate, and the complaining party then sought a mandatory injunction against the possessor of the seat and a writ of mandamus against the Governor, commanding him to issue a commission to the petitioner as Judge of the said circuit. We said that: The provisions of the Constitution, for the trial of causes, in case of the disqualification of the incumbent, (Art. 4, secs. 7 and 8,) are said to apply only to cases where the Judge is affected in person or property, but not to those involving his right to his office. Neither the language of the Constitution, nor its spirit, in our judgment, warrants any such limitation to its meaning. An office is often the most valuable property a person possesses. If the owner of land, goods or chattels may come into the court in which the Judge presides, and demand a writ against him for an injury to these, what conceivable reason is there for excluding one who claims the high functions of the judicial office to which a salary is annexed, which he charges is withheld from him by the incumbent? . . . . . . Each of the co-ordinate departments of the Government is independent of the other in the sphere of its action, and has duties to perform in which it is not subject to the control of the other. But this independence does not proceed from the grade of the officer so much as the nature of the act to be performed. The Governor, in his political and executive duties requiring the exercise of his judgment and discretion, is entirely independent of any other authority. Magruder, at 205-09 (emphasis added). In a civil war era case somewhat similar to the present case, except that it involved Legislative infringements on the power of the Judiciary, we held that the Legislature had again overstepped its bounds. Dorsey v. Gary, 37 Md. 64 (1872). In that case this Court had rendered decisions with which the Legislature apparently disagreed. The judgments had become final. The Legislature then passed an act empowering the Court to reopen and rehear the cases in which it had already rendered a final judgment. There, as in the present case, counsel argued that the power of the Legislature was predominant. In response, after distinguishing the alleged precedential cases, we held: [The present Act] undertakes to confer on this court the power, at its discretion, to annul and set aside its final judgments and decrees, rendered several terms ago upon full hearing and after careful consideration. If such legislation were sustained, there would be no end to controversies. By the organic law [the constitutions] of the State it is declared `that the Legislative, Executive and Judicial powers of the Government ought to be forever separate and distinct form each other; and no person exercising the functions of one of said departments shall assume or discharge the duties of any other.' โ Declaration of Rights, Art. 8. It requires no argument to show that such legislation as the Act before us, is contrary to the intent and meaning of this Article, and is an exercise by the Legislature of judicial powers. Dorsey, at 79. We again attempted to clearly indicate the basis for the creation and maintenance of the separation of powers concept in our case of Robey v. Commissioners, 92 Md. 150, 48 A. 48 (1900), a case involving attempts by the Legislature to impose Executive Branch accounting duties on certain of the judges of Maryland. We said then: The 8th Art. of the Declaration of Rights ordains: `That the legislative, executive and judicial powers of government ought to be forever separate and distinct from each other; and no person exercising the functions of one of said departments shall assume or discharge the duties of any other.' Can a Judge, who exercises the functions of the judicial department, be required to assume or discharge the duties which pertain to either of the other departments? The decided cases furnish many illustrations of unsuccessful efforts by the legislative department to exercise judicial functions, and many instances of attempts to confer upon the judicial department duties which were either executive or legislative. CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL said in Wagman [Wayman] v. Southard, 10 Wheat. [at] 46: `The Legislature makes, the executive executes and the judiciary construes the law.' The obvious purpose in the division of powers between the departments of government, was to prevent the same officers from exercising over the same subject the functions of legislator, executive and Judge. Such a union of functions would be a menace to civil liberty. There is no difficulty in recognizing a plain infraction of the organic prohibition; but as the act approaches the boarder [sic] line dividing these departments it may not be so easy to determine on which side of that line it belongs. . . . `. . . The mere fact that a Judge is called on by statute to execute a certain function does not make the function a judicial function. Its character is dependent on its qualities, not on the mere accident as to the person who has been designated to do it. The qualities of the act and not the character of the actor must determine the nature of the act.' Id. at 161-62, 48 A. at 50. We said in Todd, supra, a case also involving the attempt by the Legislature to impose non-judicial duties on judges, that: In making this inquiry we are not dealing with any question of expediency or policy; nor can we have regard to the question whether, in the particular instance, the Legislature has prescribed a course of proceeding best adapted to the accomplishment of a laudable object. The public policy involved in the inquiry is determined and fixed in our Bill of Rights and the Constitution โ the fundamental law; and we are limited to the question of constitutional power. As was said in the case of Thomas v. Owens, 4 Md. [189,] 225 [(1853)], `under our system of government its powers are wisely distributed to different departments; each and all are subordinate to the Constitution, which creates and defines their limits; whatever it commands is the supreme and uncontrollable law of the land.' 97 Md. at 262, 54 A. at 964. In Cromwell v. Jackson, 188 Md. 8, 52 A.2d 79 (1947), we discussed the issue of separation of powers in a situation where the Legislature was again attempting to confer administrative licensing matters on the Judiciary. There we said: As Mr. Justice Cardozo said in Highland Farms Dairy v. Agnew, 300 U.S. 608, 612, 57 S.Ct. 549, 551, 81 L.Ed. 835 [(1937)]: `How power shall be distributed by a state among its governmental organs is commonly, if not always, a question for the state itself.' The Supreme Court in construing the separate powers conferred on the three departments of the Federal Government, which makes the doctrine of separation of powers applicable, has gone very far. . . . In Mitchell v. Wright, 154 F.2d 924, 928 (C.C.A.5, 1946) Cir. J. Lee said: `We have several elements with which we may distinguish legislative and judicial functions, to wit: the element of futurity or retrospect, that of generality or particularity, that of discretion, and that of initiation. A good example of the element of discretion is the determination of a legislative body on the basis of public interest. The judiciary will not interfere with this type of discretion.. . .' . . . . . . However, when this Court is of opinion that the Legislature has exceeded its authority in placing a non-judicial function on the Court, we should not hesitate in declaring the Act void. Id. at 23-28, 52 A.2d at 86-89 (Some citations omitted). In holding, among other things, that the Legislature could not confer a de novo power upon a jury (and thus upon the Judicial Branch of government) in respect to an administrative function belonging to the Executive Branch, we stated in Linchester Sand and Gravel Corp.: That aspect of the Constitution which is spotlighted by this case is the fundamental doctrine of separation of powers, a principle expressly or impliedly recognized in the basic law of every state in this nation. This doctrine has long been a cornerstone of this State's concept of government and finds forthright expression in Article 8 of the Declaration of Rights contained in the Constitution of Maryland. Although Maryland's statement of the separation of powers is `a more concrete barrier than any which the Supreme Court has had to hurdle under the Federal Constitution,' the right of the Legislature to delegate powers to administrative agencies has been recognized in this State for more than 125 years.[ [46] ] . . . However, this constitutional `elasticity' cannot be stretched to a point where, in effect, there no longer exists a separation of governmental power, as the Maryland Constitution does not permit a merger of the three branches of our State government, nor does it `make any one of the three departments subordinate to the other, when exercising the trust committed to it.' When . . . any of the three branches of government takes unto itself powers denied to it or those strictly within the sovereignty of another branch, the courts of this State must step in and declare such encroachments to be constitutionally prohibited, not because the court is a `Triton among minnows' or predominates in dignity, but because, as Chief Justice Marshall, in Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803), in speaking of the federal constitutional system โ though just as applicable to our State system โ avowed: `It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases, must of necessity expound and interpret that rule. If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each. `So if a law be in opposition to the constitution; if both the law and the constitution apply to a particular case, so that the court must either decide that case conformably to the law, disregarding the constitution; or conformably to the constitution, disregarding the law; the court must determine which of these conflicting rules governs the case. This is of the very essence of judicial duty. `If, then, the courts are to regard the constitution, and the constitution is superior to any ordinary act of the legislature, the constitution, and not such ordinary act, must govern the case to which they both apply.' Id. [at] 177-78. . . . It was not competent, therefore, for the court to empanel a jury and then in effect instruct it to convert itself into an administrative body with authority, as if original, to grant or deny a permit. . . . This the Maryland Constitution, which divides the powers of government into three separate branches, neither to usurp the authority of the other, steps forth and forbids. 274 Md. at 218-21, 228, 334 A.2d at 520-21, 525. (Citations omitted.) In Attorney General v. Waldron, 289 Md. 683, 426 A.2d 929 (1981), a case concerning the power of the Judiciary to regulate the practice of law, we further discussed the nature and importance of the concept of separation of powers: The concept that the rights and liberties cherished by the people of Maryland are best safeguarded by the division of governmental powers into independent and coequal organs is familiar to even a casual student of our constitutional heritage. Although this doctrine is both fundamental to our scheme of government and well known, we believe it important to recall that the `purpose [of separating the exercise of the sovereign powers][prior brackets in original] was, not to avoid friction, but, by means of the inevitable friction incident to the distribution of the governmental powers among three departments, to save the people from autocracy.' Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52, 293, 47 S.Ct. 21, 84, 71 L.Ed. 160 (1926) (Brandeis, J., dissenting). The doctrine of separation of powers was thought by the founding fathers of this State to be of such monumental importance for the continued safekeeping of our freedoms that they specifically incorporated this tenet into the proposed initial Declaration of Rights [Bill of Rights], thereafter adopted as part of the Maryland Constitution of 1776. See Maryland Declaration of Rights of 1776, Art. 6. Since that time the expression of this concept has always had a place in our organic law, although its written locution has varied in our later constitutions. . . . This provision has been consistently interpreted from its inception to parcel out and separate the powers of government, and to confide particular classes of them to particular branches of the supreme authority. That is to say, such of them as are judicial in their character to the judiciary; such as are legislative to the legislative, and such as are executive in their nature to the executive. Within the particular limits assigned to each, they are supreme and uncontrollable. . . . We have recognized in the past that, in addition to the specific powers and functions expressly granted to the three organs of government by the Constitution, each branch possesses additional powers perforce implied from the right and obligation to perform its constitutional duties. . . . Indeed, the existence of such powers inheres in the scheme of a written constitution, for without this authority, the document would, by necessity, be but a tome exhaustively cataloging the sole authority of the respective political institutions. Particularly important for the resolution of this case, of course, is what has come to be known as the incidental, implied or inherent power of one branch of government โ the judiciary โ. . . . Waldron, at 688-91, 426 A.2d at 933-34 (citations omitted). While Waldron concerned the independence of the Judiciary, its holding would manifestly be at least as protective of the inherent and specified powers and duties of the Executive Branch โ and of the Legislative Branch as well.