Court Opinion

ID: 9768886
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 13:54:35.416271+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:48.529431
License: Public Domain

BIRD, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
In Scott v. McCreary, 148 Ky. 791, 147 S.W. 903, Franklin County was denied a separate judicial district because of its failure to meet constitutional requirements pertaining to county and city populations. Franklin County does not yet meet those requirements. Scott v. McCreary states the law of the present case.
The majority opinion is bottomed on Runyon v. Smith, 308 Ky. 73, 212 S.W.2d 521, 525. In that opinion it was said of Scott v. McCreary as follows:
“No intolerable disharmony exists between the decision in the Scott case and the final conclusion reached herein. We have two entirely different cases. In the Scott case Franklin County had a total population of only 21,135 and its metropolis had a population of only 10,465. There was an entire absence of the requisites of population both as to the county and as to a city within the county.”
There is still “an entire absence of the requisites” and while it is difficult to determine what Runyon v. Smith really held the foregoing language leaves the law unchanged as it relates to Franklin County.
*608Regardless, however, of its effect on Scott v. McCreary, the case of Runyon v. Smith constitutes a judicial amendment to the Constitution. This writer continues to believe that the right to amend is reserved to the people exclusively. Runyon v. Smith should be specifically overruled and, if the petitioner has any right to an original action in this Court, the relief sought should be granted.