Opinion ID: 1200134
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Georgia Constitutional Mandate

Text: 3. Our constitution requires us to declare unconstitutional legislative acts void. Ga. Constitution 1983, Art. I, Sec. II, Par. V. [7] That constitutional provision does not allow this Court to set a specific date upon which an unconstitutional statute becomes inoperative. It does not allow this Court to determine that a statute is just a little bit void. It does not allow this Court to ignore its clear mandate or the long line of Georgia cases that have upheld the constitutional mandate. Nor can this Court rely on United States Supreme Court decisions that are not on point and in which the Georgia Constitution was never discussed or considered. (See Div. 5, infra, discussion of Chicot County Drainage District v. Baxter State Bank, 308 U. S. 371 (60 SC 317, 84 LE 329) (1940).) Instead our constitution and case law require us to declare unconstitutional acts entirely void from their inception. An unconstitutional statute, though having the form, features, and name of law, is in reality no law. It is wholly void. In legal contemplation it is as inoperative as if it had never been passed. It has been declared that it is a misnomer to call such statute a law. Such a statute confers no authority upon any one, and affords protection to no one. Norton v. Shelby County, 118 U. S. 425 (6 Sup. Ct. 1121, 30 L. ed. 178); Ex Parte Siebold, 100 U. S. 371, 376 (25 L. ed. 717); [Cits.]; McCants v. Layfield, 149 Ga. 238 (99 S. E. 877). In Osborn v. Bank of the United States, 9 Wheat. 738 (6 L. ed. 204), Chief Justice Marshall declared that it is an extravagant proposition that a void act can afford protection to the person who executes it. In Boston v. Cummins, 16 Ga. 102, 106 (60 Am. D. 717), this court declared that The unconstitutional acts of the legislature, State and Federal, are not laws; and no court will execute them, having a proper sense of its own obligations and responsibilities. In Wellborn v. Estes, 70 Ga. 390 this court said: Legislative acts in violation of the constitution of this State or of the United States are void. The constitution of this State declares that Legislative acts in violation of this constitution or the constitution of the United States are void, and the judiciary shall so declare them. Proceedings under an unconstitutional statute had before such statute is judicially declared to be unconstitutional are void. Jordan v. Franklin, 131 Ga. 487 (52 S. E. 673); Worth County v. Crisp County, 139 Ga. 117 (3) (76 S. E. 747); James v. Blakely, 143 Ga. 117 (84 S. E. 431). [Emphasis supplied in part.] Dennison Mfg. Co. v. Wright, 156 Ga. 789, 797 (120 SE 120) (1923). See also State Highway Dept. v. H. G. Hastings Co., 187 Ga. 204, 215 (199 SE2d 793) (1938); Tarpley v. Carr, 204 Ga. 721, 727 (51 SE2d 638) (1949) (City officers were not de facto officers of office created under an unconstitutional charter); Franklin v. Harper, 205 Ga. 779, 784 (55 SE2d 221) (1949); Baggett v. Linder, 208 Ga. 590, 591 (68 SE2d 469) (1952); Milam v. Adams, 216 Ga. 440, 444 (117 SE2d 343) (1960); K. Gordon Murray Productions, Inc. v. Floyd, 217 Ga. 784, 787 (125 SE2d 207) (1962) (...the remedy provided in the ordinance is not even law if the petitioner's constitutional attack is sustained.) Dobson v. Brown, 225 Ga. 73, 76 (166 SE2d 22) (1969) (`Not even estoppel can legalize or vitalize that which the law declares unlawful and void.'); and Mapp v. First Ga. Bank, 156 Ga. App. 380 (274 SE2d 765) (1980). (See note 7, infra.) [8] Although Bacchus may have led this Court to conclude that the Georgia statute, in the present case was unconstitutional, it does not affect Art. I, Sec. II, Par. V of the Georgia Constitution which provides that an unconstitutional statute is void from its inception. Once the statute was declared unconstitutional, it was as if no statute, case law, or public policy had ever been established. The Constitution is irrepealable, and any law in violation of it is void  is null; rights cannot grow up under such a law. Battle v. Shivers, 39 Ga. 405, 417 (1869). Once the statute was declared unconstitutional it became inoperative, as if it had never been passed. Therefore, no court having a proper sense of its own obligations and responsibilities will execute it. Dennison, supra, 156 Ga. at 797. The state had no authority to assess or collect the taxes, and this Court has no authority to execute a void statute.