Court Opinion

ID: 9691216
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 20:16:55.889065+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:13.138303
License: Public Domain

Jim Gunter, Justice, dissenting. I respectfully dissent. This court has no jurisdiction. The jurisdiction of the Arkansas Supreme Court arises solely from Amendment 80 to the Arkansas Constitution. Amendment 80 states that (D) The Supreme Court shall have: (1) Statewide appellate jurisdiction; (2) Original jurisdiction to issue writs of quo warranto to all persons holding judicial office, and to officers of political corporations when the question involved is the legal existence of such corporations; (3) Original jurisdiction to answer questions of state law certified by a court of the United States, which may be exercised pursuant to Supreme Court rule; (4) Original jurisdiction to determine sufficiency of state initiative and referendum petitions and proposed constitutional amendments; and (5) Only such other original jurisdiction as provided by this Constitution. (E) The Supreme Court shall have power to issue and determine any and all writs necessary in aid of its jurisdiction and to delegate to its several justices the power to issue such writs. Ark. Const. Amend 80, § 2. The majority’s reliance on our decision in Lake View Sch. Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee, 355 Ark. 617, 142 S.W.3d 643 (2004), Lake View Sch. Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee, 358 Ark. 137, 189 S.W.3d 1 (2004), and Amendment 80, section 2(E) of the Arkansas Constitution is misplaced. The majority quotes the following language in our decision in Lake View handed down on June 18, 2004, in order to justify its power to accept this case: We will not waver in our commitment to the goal of an adequate and substantially equal education for all Arkansas students; nor will we waver from the constitutional requirement that our State is to “ever maintain a general, suitable, and efficient system of free public schools[.]” Make no mistake, this court will exercise the power and authority of the judiciary at any time to assure that the students of our State will not fall short of the goal set forth by this court. Lake View Sch. Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee, 358 Ark. 137, 161, 189 S.W.3d 1, 17 (2004). Jurisdiction is the power of the court to hear and determine the subject matter in controversy between the parties. Conner v. Simes, 355 Ark. 422, 139 S.W.3d 476 (2003). We have a duty to determine if we have jurisdiction over a case, and if we do not, we cannot make any determinations with regard to the matter. Terry v. Lock, 343 Ark. 452, 458, 37 S.W.3d 202, 204 (2001). This court’s “power and authority” to hear a case comes from the Arkansas Constitution, specifically Amendment 80, section 2. The majority points to Ark. Const. Amend 80, § 2(E) as the basis for our jurisdiction in this case. Section 2(E) states that “[t]he Supreme Court shall have power to issue and determine any and all writs necessary in aid of its jurisdiction and to delegate to its several justices the power to issue such writs.” This section assumes that the court already has jurisdiction. A court cannot issue a writ “in aid of its jurisdiction” when it has no jurisdiction in the first place. The majority has cited nothing more than our statement in Lake View that we “will exercise the power and authority of the judiciary” as its basis for this jurisdiction. Our saying that it is so does not necessarily make it so, regardless of how laudable our motives. Moreover, in spite of the collective frustration of this court, the legislature, the governor, and the citizens of this state, the citizens of Arkansas have not given this court the job of establishing, maintaining, or operating the public-school system. The act of the majority decision in recalling the Lake View mandate, once again, expresses the court’s distrust of the legislature, which has been given that job. Article 14, Section 1 of the Arkansas Constitution states that the State shall ever maintain a general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools and shall adopt all suitable means to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education. The specific intention of this amendment is to authorize that in addition to existing constitutional or statutory provisions^] the General Assembly and/or public school districts may spend public funds for the education of persons over twenty-one (21) years of age and under six (6) years of age, as may be provided by law, and no other interpretation shall be given to it. Ark. Const. Art. 14, § 1 (as amended by Const. Amend. 53). We have long recognized that this provision vests “in the legislature the duty and authority to make provisions for the establishment, maintenance and support of a common school system in our state.” Saline County Bd. of Educ. v. Hot Spring County Bd. of Educ., 270 Ark. 136, 603 S.W.2d 413 (1980); Wheelis v. Franks, 189 Ark. 373, 72 S.W.2d 231 (1934). While our jurisdiction to decide cases and controversies before us gives us the power to declare the school system and laws of the legislature unconstitutional in the appropriate case, it does not give us the power to legislate. That power belongs to the legislature. See Barker v. Frank, 327 Ark. 589, 939 S.W.2d 837 (1997); Saline County Bd. of Educ., supra. The citizens of this state elected each of us to serve as justices, not legislators. Nor does it gives us the power to act as a court of original jurisdiction and find facts. We have original jurisdiction in certain well-defined situations. See Ark. Const. Amend 80, § 2(D)(2), (3), (4), and (5). This is not one of them. The government of Arkansas has been delegated by the people to three separate departments: the Legislative Department, the Executive Department, and the Judicial Department. See Ark. Const. Art. 4. Each department has been granted certain powers, and “[n]o person or collection of persons, being of one of these departments, shall exercise any power belonging to either of the others, except in the instances hereinafter expressly directed or permitted.” Ark. Const. Art. 4, § 2. Had the people wanted this court to run the school system and to disregard the legislature’s efforts, there would have been plain language to that effect in our constitution. There is not; so the majority relies on its own creation of authority to act. By our repeated recall of the mandate, we have announced our authority and intent to review each session of the legislature in sweeping fashion. Our action may be interpreted as bullying the legislature to spend more on an area of government that we favor most for the moment. Every legislative session benefits some educational groups or districts and disadvantages others. While we may receive accolades from those who benefit from our decision, it is not this court’s role to make these decisions, whether directly or indirectly. The majority is setting this court up to perform a perpetual review of the State’s educational policy. In addition to being outside of our power and authority, this solution is simply unworkable. We have been insensitive to the people of Arkansas by casting shadows on their selected representatives in the General Assembly. We have assumed the position of grading the financial decisions of the body charged with running the entire state on a limited budget. If that were not enough, we have decided to evaluate these decisions before the General Assembly’s solution has even been placed into action. In my opinion, instead of building more power for the court, we should exercise judicial restraint. We should leave the power in the hands of the people. We should leave education in the hands of the legislature. We should demonstrate that we respect the power of the people to entrust decisions to their elected representatives, thereby allowing government by the people and for the people. We should adhere to the fundamental system of government established in our constitution, which relies on three distinct and separate branches. We should limit the exercise of our power to the Judicial Department.1  Hannah, C.J., and Carol Dalby, Special Justice, join this dissent.   “The judicial power is vested in the Judicial Department of state government, consisting of a Supreme Court and other courts established by this Constitution.” Ark. Const. Amend 80, § 1.