Court Opinion

ID: 9794094
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:59:12.472924+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:11:39.249812
License: Public Domain

*881Hill, J.
(concurring in the result)—The majority opinion sets forth the four grounds on which the constitutionality of § 2 is assailed. The majority relies on the fourth ground, that the section in question is vague, uncertain, and indefinite.
Section 2 prohibits bottle clubs unless they can secure a license from the Washington state liquor control board; the board is not empowered to issue a license under which a bottle club, as defined, can be operated; ergo, it is unlawful to operate a bottle club. The route followed by the legislature to reach that end may be circuitous, but it is not vague, uncertain, or indefinite; none of the appellants are deceived or confused. We frequently say that what cannot be done directly should not be accomplished indirectly, but there is no apparent reason in the present case why that which could be done directly (i.e., the prohibition of bottle clubs) should not be done indirectly (i.e., by prohibiting bottle clubs to operate without a license, and making no provision for such a license).
While I do not agree with the majority that § 2 is vague, uncertain, and indefinite, I arrive at the same result (i.e., the conclusion that the legislation in question is unconstitutional) on the second ground set forth on page 3 of the majority opinion, i.e., that it violates Art. II, § 38 of the state constitution, which provides, “No amendment to any bill shall be allowed which shall change the scope and object of the bill.”
The complaints of two of the appellants contain the following allegations:
“That Chapter 120 originated as Senate Bill No. 174 and as shown by the legislative Journal of the Senate and House of Representatives, 1951 Session, was introduced January 31, 1951 at which time it was an act ‘Prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors on or near the grounds of the University of Washington, and amending Section 66.11.19 R.C.W.’. That on the 58th day of the legislative Session, on March 6, 1951, Senate Bill No. 174, as shown by the Journal of the House of Representatives, was amended in the House of Representatives by adding to Senate Bill No. 174, Section *8822 of Chapter 120 and by obtaining the present title of this act.”
The respondents, by their demurrer to those complaints in intervention, admit that the legislature violated Art. II, § 38 of our constitution, but say that the court will not go behind an enrolled enactment to determine the method, the procedure, the means, or the manner by which it was passed in the houses of the legislature.
An admitted and flagrant violation of the same constitutional provision was before us in Power, Inc. v. Huntley, 39 Wn. (2d) 191, 235 P. (2d) 173. We there said:
“Appellants [state tax commissioners et al.] do not deny that this constitutional provision was violated. Their position, briefly stated, is: ‘So what? There isn’t anything the court can do about it because, under its repeated decisions, there is no way it can know what happened.’
“That is the position always taken in argument when a question (not now before us) is raised concerning the validity of legislation enacted in a regular session after the sixtieth day. Art. II, § 12. It may or may not be, as argued, that the limitations of Art. II, §§12 and 38, are binding only upon the legislative conscience, and that the courts must perpetually remain in ignorance of what everybody else in the state knows. We refrain from any consideration of this further constitutional question urged upon us by the respondents, and of the ‘So what’ answer of the appellants, as being unnecessary to the disposition of the present appeal.”
As indicated, the respondents here rely upon the “enrolled bill rule,” which is that an enrolled bill, when fair upon its face, must be accepted by the courts as having been regularly enacted by the legislature. There is no doubt that this court has long since committed itself to that rule and has frequently restated it. No better statement of the reasons for the rule can be found than in Judge Hoyt’s frequently quoted and widely praised opinion in State ex rel. Reed v. Jones, 6 Wash. 452, 34 Pac. 201, 23 L. R. A. 340 (1893). See, also, Parmeter v. Bourne, 8 Wash. 45, 35 Pac. 586, 757 (1894); Scouten v. Whatcom, 33 Wash. 273, 74 Pac. 389 (1903); Gottstein v. Lister, 88 Wash. 462, 153 Pac. 595 *883(1915); State ex rel. Dunbar v. State Board of Equalization, 140 Wash. 433, 249 Pac. 996 (1926); Morrow v. Henneford, 182 Wash. 625, 47 P. (2d) 1016 (1935); Shelton Hotel Co. v. Bates, 4 Wn. (2d) 498, 104 P. (2d) 478 (1940); State ex rel. Bugge v. Martin, 38 Wn. (2d) 834, 232 P. (2d) 833 (1951).
In the opinion in Power, Inc. v. Huntley, supra, the writer avoided that which I cannot here evade, namely, a consideration of whether the court should ever go behind an enrolled bill. Even in the face of the great array of authority to the contrary, I cannot escape the conviction that the enrolled bill rule should not be a shibboleth which will protect violations of the constitutional provisions by the legislature where such violations are matters of common knowledge or where the violation is established by the legislature’s own journal records, especially when the constitutional question is raised immediately after the enactment of the legislation in question. Nor can I forbear the comment that each of the three co-ordinate branches of government should recognize that a disregard of the constitutional restrictions and limitations placed upon it can undermine respect for law and constitutional government just as effectively as can the subversives who are currently causing us great concern.