Court Opinion

ID: 9674200
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:24:36.015257+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:07.929967
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, C.J.
¶ 52. (concurring). I join Justice Butler's concurrence. This case could be decided on narrow grounds. The problems with the existing statute could be identified and the task of redrafting the statute left to the legislature or to a case in which the court must settle a dispute on constitutional grounds.
¶ 53. I write separately to raise an issue that no party addresses but that might be a matter of some concern. This case involved the powers and duties of the office of clerk of circuit court. The office of clerk of circuit court is a constitutional office, Wis. Const. Art. VII, § 121 *28(see also Art. VI, § 4),2 and the clerk of circuit court has been a constitutional office since the 1848 state constitution, 1848 Wis. Const. Art. VII, § 12.3 State ex rel. Allen v. Lyon, 45 Wis. 246, 248 (1878); State v. Van Brocklin, 194 Wis. 441, 449 (1927) (Eschweiler, J., dissenting) (explaining "[t]he clerk of the circuit court is a constitutional officer").
¶ 54. We have had occasion to discuss the implications of the constitutional nature of the office of sheriff. An issue sometimes raised when a statute governs the constitutional office of sheriff is whether by virtue of being a constitutional office certain duties attach to the office that cannot be altered by statute. Cases addressing this issue as it relates to the office of sheriff date as far back as State ex rel. Kennedy v. Brunst, 26 Wis. 412 (1870), and are as recent as Kocken v. Wis. Council 40, 2007 WI 72, 301 Wis. 2d 266, 732 N.W2d 828.
*29¶ 55. The applicability of this line of cases to the office of clerk of circuit court has not been explored recently by this court. The court of appeals, however, has examined some of the constitutional underpinnings and ramifications of the office of the clerk of circuit court. See, e.g., Granado v. Sentry Ins., 228 Wis. 2d 794, 801-02, 599 N.W.2d 62 (Ct. App. 1999); Harbick v. Marinette County, 138 Wis. 2d 172, 179-80, 405 N.W.2d 724 (Ct. App. 1987) (relating to the powers and duties of the office of county clerk).
¶ 56. The parties do not ask us to decide a constitutional issue, and I will not comment on it further. Litigants, courts, and the legislature must be mindful, however, to consider any constitutional powers of the office of clerk of circuit court.
¶ 57. For the reasons set forth, I concur.

 Article VII, section 12 (as amended Nov. 1882, Apr. 2005) states in full that:
(1) There shall he a clerk of circuit court chosen in each county organized for judicial purposes hy the qualified electors thereof, who, except as provided in sub. (2), shall hold office for two years, subject to removal as provided by law.
(2) Beginning with the first general election at which the governor is elected which occurs after the ratification of this subsection, a clerk of circuit court shall he chosen by the electors of each county, for the term of 4 years, subject to removal as provided hy law.
(3) In case of a vacancy, the judge of the circuit court may appoint a clerk until the vacancy is filled by an election.
(4) The clerk of circuit court shall give such security as the legislature requires by law.
(5) The supreme court shall appoint its own clerk, and may appoint a clerk of circuit court to be the clerk of the supreme court.

 Article VI, section 4, as amended most recently in April 2005, states in pertinent part that:
(l)(a) Except as provided in pars, (b) and (c) and sub. (2), coroners, registers of deeds, district attorneys, and all other elected county officers, except judicial officers, sheriffs, and chief executive officers, shall be chosen by the electors of the respective counties once in every 2 years.
(c) Beginning with the first general election at which the president is elected which occurs after the ratification of this paragraph, district attorneys, registers of deeds, county clerks, and treasurers shall be chosen by the electors of the respective counties, or by the electors of all of the respective counties comprising each combination of counties combined by the legislature for that purpose ....

 Article VII, section 12, of the 1848 constitution stated in pertinent part: "There shall be a clerk of the circuit court, chosen in each county, organized for judicial purposes, by the qualified electors thereof, who shall hold his office for two years, subject to removal as shall be provided by law."