Court Opinion

ID: 9468712
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:21:53.316327+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:01.112051
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Circuit Judge,
with whom
JOHN W. OLIVER, Senior District Judge,
joins, concurring.
In Brown v. Parratt, 560 F.2d 303, 305 (8th Cir.1977) (Heaney, J., dissenting), I stated in detail my reasons for disagreeing with the holding of this Court in Martin v. Parratt, 549 F.2d 50 (8th Cir. 1977). I reiterate that view here. Indeed, my conviction as to the statute’s unconstitutionality is strengthened by its application to the factual situation underlying this appeal. See State v. Pierce, 283 N.W.2d 6, 12 (Neb.1979) (Hastings, J., dissenting, in which Krivosha, C. J., and McCown, J., join).
*1208Since the original opinion and concurring opinion was filed, my attention has been called to State v. Cory, 204 Or. 235, 282 P.2d 1054 (1955), in which the Supreme Court of Oregon sustained a facial attack on Oregon’s habitual criminal statute which is not unlike Nebraska’s statute. The court there stated:
In the portion of the statute being considered there is no yardstick or semblance of classification which would enable the district attorney to determine under what circumstances an information should be filed. The exercise of an absolute discretion is vested in the district attorney in such a circumstance. In other words, the fate of persons, even to the extent of life imprisonment, who have committed the same acts under the same circumstances and in like situations is determined by the whim and caprice of the district attorney. We hold the portion of ORS 168.040 reading “and in other cases, may” unconstitutional.
Id. 282 P.2d at 1056.
I would add that in my view the Nebraska statute also unconstitutionally delegates legislative power to the prosecutor. See Note, The Separation of Powers Doctrine: A Viable Challenge to the Nebraska Criminal Statute, 11 Creighton L.Rev. 925, 941-945 (1978). The author states:
As long as the statute lacks sufficient limitation of the power it delegates, it will constitute an impermissible delegation of power and a violation of separation of powers regardless of the branch to which the power is delegated. * * * The Nebraska Habitual Criminal Statute does not contain such limitations on the power it delegates to the prosecutor. It therefore does not satisfy the requirements established as a condition of the constitutionality of a delegated legislative power.
Id. at 945.
I concur only because this panel must adhere to the Court’s earlier decision in Martin v. Parratt, supra, 549 F.2d at 50. I renew with Judge Oliver’s concurrence the suggestion that this Court should consider the issues raised in this appeal en banc.