Opinion ID: 1737377
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: senate confirmation power

Text: This alleged legislative usurpation of executive power must be considered separately. A number of statutes provide gubernatorial appointments to executive offices are to be made with the advice and consent of the senate. [6] The attorney general claims this statutory confirmation power is a violation of Article I, Sections 1 and 2 of the Constitution. Our pattern of analysis is the same as we have previously employed. Is the power being exercised by the members of the legislative department at the core of the executive power or is the legislature affirmatively appointing persons who will then exercise powers at the core of the executive power? As we have stated above, where the answer to either of these questions is in the affirmative, there is a violation of Article I, Sections 1 and 2. The senate confirmation power, however, in our view is different. It does not result in invasion of executive power. First, the senate has been vested with no power to make appointments, its power being wholly negative. While it may withhold for any reason approval of an executive appointee, it may not affirmatively force on the executive department persons unacceptable to the governor or other members of that department. Second, the senate maintains no control over the appointee once he has been confirmed; it has no power to discharge short of impeachment. Once confirmation is given the prerogatives of the senate are concluded. The loyalty of the employee or the appointee remains with the chief executive. It is true the power to confirm executive appointments has not been vested in the senate or the legislature as a whole by any provision of the constitution. By the same token the exercise of this confirmation power is in no way the exercise of a power central to the executive. In the context of the structure of government of United States and of the states which was known to the draftsmen in 1890, we think the confirmation of power is commonly understood to be within the legislative prerogative. For example, the Constitution of the United States provides that the power of the president to appoint members of his cabinet and other top executive officials shall be by and with the advice and consent of the senate. Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, Constitution of the United States. The legislature has the constitutional power to vest in the senate the confirmation prerogative, so long as that prerogative is exercised in the essentially negative fashion as provided in the statutes here under attack. This prerogative must be limited to top discretion exercising officials of executive or administrative agencies. It may not be enforced so that the legislature substantially exercises or controls functions at the core of the executive power. Of course, the personal staffs of elected executive officers are not subject to confirmation, nor are the members of advisory commissions or boards. We are of the opinion the confirmation power, insofar as it has been put in issue by the facts of this case, is not invasive of the power vested in the executive department by Article I, Section 1 and by Article V. We hold that the challenged statutes authorizing the exercise of this confirmation power are within the constitutional power of the legislature to enact. Under accepted canons of interpretation, these statutes may not be disturbed. State ex rel. Patterson v. Land, 231 Miss. 529, 95 So.2d 764 (Miss. 1957); Quinn v. City of McComb, 212 Miss. 730, 55 So.2d 479 (1951). Basic to our holding is our recognition that there is another side to the coin labeled on one side separation of powers. This other side, commonly referred to as checks and balances, is the mandate that important checks be placed upon each department's exercise of its power. For example, legislative power is checked by the governor's veto power [Article IV, Sections 72-73; See Jackson County v. Neville, 131 Miss. 599, 625, 95 So. 626, 628 (1923)], and by the judicial power of this Court to declare acts of the legislature unconstitutional. [Article VI, Section 144; Albritton v. City of Winona, 181 Miss. 75, 96, 178 So. 799, 803 (1938)]. The power of the judiciary is checked by the governor's pardon power [Article V, Section 124], and by the legislature's powers of impeachment and removal of judges. Article IV, Sections 49-53. It is consistent with our constitutional system that the departments of government have powers to check and balance the other departments. This confirmation power is a legislative check on executive power.