Opinion ID: 2618315
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: mandatory uniformity of procedure under this state's fundamental law

Text: Rules invocable in the course of an agency's adjudicative process have the same binding force as do court rules affecting forensic judicature. Courts and agencies alike must hold themselves powerless to grant dispensation from obedience to any self-generated norms of procedure which clearly command in any given posture. [11] Uniformity of procedure is plainly mandated by Art. 5, § 46, Okl. Const. [12] Just as the legislature itself is powerless to regulate procedure by legal norms not uniformly applicable  i.e., those lacking across-the-board application, but having only local or special impact [13]  so are the courts as well as all other adjudicative agencies of government. [14] Any adjudicator's at-will departure from a governing rule of adjective law is in plain contravention of our constitution's prescription against unequal treatment through the use of a discriminatory regime of procedure. I therefore enthusiastically join today in enforcing fidelity and obedience to an agency's procedural regime by our reversal of the Commission's flawed order. [15]