Opinion ID: 1843606
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: A. Political Questions

Text: The state defendants and the Pinto intervenors challenge the circuit court's exercise of jurisdiction as violating the doctrine of the separation of powers because, they say, the state's method of funding public schools is an inherently political decision. In spite of the delay in appealing the liability order, this Court can consider whether the trial court's liability order violated the separation of powers doctrine of the Alabama Constitution. If it did, the trial court had no subject matter jurisdiction and the judgment is void. See Brown v. State, 565 So.2d 585 (Ala.1990); Ex parte Dison, 469 So.2d 662 (Ala.1984); Greco v. Thyssen Mining Constr., Inc., 500 So.2d 1143 (Ala.Civ.App.1986). The lack of subject matter jurisdiction is not waivable and may be raised at any time by the suggestion of a party or by a court ex mero motu.  Greco, 500 So.2d at 1146. Judgments entered without subject-matter jurisdiction can be set aside at any time as void, either on direct or on collateral attack. International Longshoremen's Ass'n v. Davis, 470 So.2d 1215, 1217 (Ala.1985), aff'd, 476 U.S. 380, 106 S.Ct. 1904, 90 L.Ed.2d 389 (1986). The Supreme Court of Illinois has found issues of law to be more important than procedural niceties: [A] reviewing court may consider an issue not raised in the trial court if the issue is one of law and is fully briefed and argued by the parties. People ex rel. Daley v. Datacom Systems Corp., 146 Ill.2d 1, 27, 165 Ill.Dec. 655, 585 N.E.2d 51 (1991). Edgar, 174 Ill.2d at 11, 220 Ill.Dec. at 171, 672 N.E.2d at 1183. That court understood how important the case was and gave the plaintiffs every opportunity to have the case reviewed: Furthermore, the questions presented are of substantial public importance, and we believe the public interest favors consideration of the merits. Accordingly, we will consider this argument, along with those issues properly preserved for review. Edgar, 174 Ill.2d at 12, 220 Ill.Dec. at 171, 672 N.E.2d at 1183. In Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962), the United States Supreme Court set out guidelines on the proper bounds for judicial authority. Courts uphold and respect the separation of powers by leaving political questions to the political branchesthe legislative and executive. The courts may address only those questions that are essential for adjudication by the judicial branch. The Supreme Court set out six factors in cases dealing with political questions. The presence of any single factor may be sufficient to bar the case from justiciability. The six factors are: Prominent on the surface of any case held to involve a political question is found [1] a textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to a coordinate political department; or [2] a lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standards for resolving it; or [3] the impossibility of deciding without an initial policy determination of a kind clearly for nonjudicial discretion; or [4] the impossibility of a court's undertaking independent resolution without expressing lack of the respect due coordinate branches of government; or [5] an unusual need for unquestioning adherence to a political decision already made; or [6] the potentiality of embarrassment from multifarious pronouncements by various departments on one question. Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. at 217, 82 S.Ct. at 710. Each factor must be considered in light of the facts and issues of the case at hand. Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. at 217, 82 S.Ct. at 710. As to the first factor, Article III, § 42, Ala. Const. 1901, states: The powers of the government of the State of Alabama shall be divided into three distinct departments, each of which shall be confided to a separate body of magistracy, to wit: Those which are legislative, to one; those which are executive, to another; and those which are judicial to another. Article III, § 43, Ala. Const. 1901, states: In the government of this state, except in the instances in this Constitution hereinafter expressly directed or permitted, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them; the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them; the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them; to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men. Alabama's Constitution unequivocally separates the powers of the three branches, absolutely forbidding any branch from exercising the powers of the other two branches. Article III, § 72, Ala. Const. 1901, provides that no money shall be paid out of the treasury except upon appropriation, made by law, i.e., passed by the Legislature. And Article XIV, § 260, reads: The income arising from the sixteenth section trust fund, the surplus revenue fund, until it is called for by the United States government, and the funds enumerated in sections 257 and 258 of this Constitution, together with a special annual tax of thirty cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property in this state, which the legislature shall levy, shall be applied to the support and maintenance of the public schools, and it shall be the duty of the legislature to increase the public school fund from time to time as the necessity therefor and the condition of the treasury and the resources of the state may justify; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to authorize the legislature to levy in any one year a greater rate of state taxation for all purposes, including schools, than sixty-five cents on each one hundred dollars' worth of taxable property; and provided further, that nothing herein contained shall prevent the legislature from first providing for the payment of the bonded indebtedness of the state and interest thereon out of all the revenue of the state. Thus, the Legislature has the sole responsibility for deciding how much money to spend on education. The Legislature must do so in the context of the limited financial resources of this state and the other services the state must provide. If the principle of equitable funding applies to education, why should it not also apply to the provision of police and fire protection to each county? The police power of the state existed before the Alabama Constitution of 1901. The Legislature must make policy decisions as to how high taxes should be and what departments receive what resources. The courts cannot make these types of policy choices without becoming a super legislature. The Governor is president and an ex officio member of the State Board of Education. Ala. Code 1975, §§ 16-3-1, 16-3-2. The Governor holds the supreme executive power in the state, Ala. Const. 1901, Art. V, § 113, and is charged with the faithful execution of the laws, Ala. Const. 1901, Art. V, § 120. Judge Reese's attempt to order the Governor to establish a public school system that provides equitable and adequate educational opportunities encroaches upon the authority given to the Governor by the Alabama Constitution and statutory law. As to the second factor, there are no clear judicial standards for resolving the question of how public education should be funded. This is a subject of endless political debate, and there are no judicial standards in the United States Constitution or the Alabama Constitution or in any caselaw for a court to apply. See San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 93 S.Ct. 1278, 36 L.Ed.2d 16 (1973). Regarding the third factor, Judge Reese's detailed discussions of policy are evidence that Judge Reese made an initial policy determination of a kind clearly reserved for nonjudicial discretion. Baker, 369 U.S. at 217, 82 S.Ct. at 710. Further, Judge Reese set forth in his liability order judicially enforceable standards for education with which the Legislature was to comply. As to the fourth factor, Judge Reese expressed a lack of respect for the executive and legislative branches by attempting to force his own judgment on how to reform Alabama's education system upon those two branches. The executive and legislative branches are constitutionally vested with the authority to determine education policy. Finally, the potential for embarrassment from multifarious pronouncements by different departments is present because the legislative and executive branches could enact a program that conflicts with Judge Reese's orders. In fact, the Governor and the Legislature passed an education plan in 1995 that could be construed as conflicting with Judge Reese's orders. That conflict has created a potentially embarrassing situation. Thus, in several respects Judge Reese's order improperly reaches political issues. Political questions are not proper subjects for adjudication by the courts. The trial court had no judicially enforceable standards for resolving the issue of school equity funding. Nevertheless, the trial court adopted its own standardthat the schoolchildren have a right to an equitable and adequate education. What was equitable and adequate was left to the discretion of the circuit court. However, what constitutes a proper education or an equitable and adequate education is completely subjective. Certainly it is not a fixed right with clear judicial standards. The proper forum to debate what is an equitable and adequate education is the Legislature, not the courtroom. The legislative and executive branches have a difficult enough task trying to balance the competing educational philosophies vying for supremacy in Alabama. For Alabama to now defer to one circuit judge would be like a third-world country's deferring to a strong man dictator who coercively enforces one philosophy upon all the people. The United States Supreme Court held in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, supra, that the fact that there were inequalities in the funding of Texas public schools did not render the method of financing public schools in Texas unconstitutional. The United States Supreme Court stated: This case represents far more than a challenge to the manner in which Texas provides for the education of its children. We have here nothing less than a direct attack on the way in which Texas has chosen to raise and disburse state and local tax revenues. We are asked to condemn the State's judgment in conferring on political subdivisions the power to tax local property to supply revenues for local interests. In so doing, appellees [plaintiffs] would have the Court intrude in an area in which it has traditionally deferred to state legislatures. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. at 40, 93 S.Ct. at 1300 (footnote omitted). The United States Supreme Court further stated: In addition to matters of fiscal policy, this case also involves the most persistent and difficult questions of educational policy, another area in which this Court's lack of specialized knowledge and experience counsels against premature interference with the informed judgments made at the state and local levels. Education, perhaps even more than welfare assistance, presents a myriad of `intractable economic, social, and even philosophical problems.' Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 487, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 1162-1163, 25 L.Ed.2d 491 [(1970)]. The very complexity of the problems of financing and managing a statewide public school system suggests that `there will be more than one constitutionally permissible method of solving them,' and that, within the limits of rationality, `the legislature's efforts to tackle the problems' should be entitled to respect. Jefferson v. Hackney, 406 U.S. 535, 546-547, 92 S.Ct. 1724, 1731-1732, 32 L.Ed.2d 285 [(1976)]. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. at 42, 93 S.Ct. at 1301. The United States Supreme Court concluded that the ultimate solutions must come from the lawmakers and from the democratic pressures of those who elect them. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. at 59, 93 S.Ct. at 1310. The Supreme Court clearly held that the question of public school funding was a policy question and was not a proper question for adjudication. The Supreme Court's logic applies equally to Federal and state courts. The fact that the question is now before a state court does not make the question of public school funding any less a political and policy question. If this Court chooses to ignore the political nature of this case and proceeds down the path traveled by the circuit court, it will enter a morass from which it will be difficult to disentangle. The absence of justiciable standards could engage the Court in decades of litigation like the Supreme Court of New Jersey became involved in. The Supreme Court of New Jersey has been attempting for over 20 years to define what constitutes a thorough and efficient education as that term is used in the New Jersey State Constitution. It begins with Robinson v. Cahill, 62 N.J. 473, 303 A.2d 273 (1973), and continues with Robinson v. Cahill, 63 N.J. 196, 306 A.2d 65 (1973); Robinson v. Cahill, 67 N.J. 35, 335 A.2d 6 (1975); Robinson v. Cahill, 67 N.J. 333, 339 A.2d 193 (1975); Robinson v. Cahill, 69 N.J. 133, 351 A.2d 713 (1975); Robinson v. Cahill, 69 N.J. 449, 355 A.2d 129 (1976); Robinson v. Cahill, 70 N.J. 155, 358 A.2d 457 (1976); Robinson v. Cahill, 70 N.J. 155, 358 A.2d 457 (1976); Robinson v. Cahill, 70 N.J. 464, 360 A.2d 400 (1976); Abbott v. Burke, 100 N.J. 269, 495 A.2d 376 (1985); Abbott v. Burke, 119 N.J. 287, 575 A.2d 359 (1990); and Abbott v. Burke, 136 N.J. 444, 643 A.2d 575 (1994). The New Jersey Supreme Court has been the self-appointed overseer of education in New Jersey for 23 years. This litigation has not yet ended. The reason the litigation has not ended is because the New Jersey Supreme Court entered into the realm of policy-making. Policy-making has no end; there are always new matters to be addressed. Further, there has never been and there never will be a fully equitable funding of any state public school system. It would require the forced equalizing of every single differentiating economic factor in every county of the state. Total economic equality is a characteristic of totalitarian communism, not American democracy. The standard of mandating equity in school funding is both nonjudicial and unrealistic. The majority of the highest courts of states that have heard claims that the state school system did not provide an equitable method of funding public schools has rejected those claims for constitutional reasons and on the basis that such funding issues are within the province of the state's legislature.