Court Opinion

ID: 9644911
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:08:28.803219+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:20.011516
License: Public Domain

DONNELLY, Judge,
dissenting.
In 1984 the people of Missouri adopted article III, section 39(b), an amendment to the Constitution which conferred on the General Assembly the “authority to authorize a Missouri state lottery.” Id. This was done- §§ 313.200-.350, RSMo 1986 (State Lottery Law). Today, the majority judicially amends the State Lottery Law and it becomes the Multi-State Lottery Law. I cannot concur.
First, the purpose of the law, the majority poses, is to “facilitate the institution of the lottery to the full extent authorized by the voters.” I disagree. The legislature is not bound to pass laws extending the full breadth of constitutional authorization. Cf. Perkins v. Benquet Consolidated Mining Co., 342 U.S. 437, 440-41, 72 S.Ct. 413, 415-16, 96 L.Ed. 485 (1952) (legislature may in its discretion choose not to extend personal jurisdiction to limits of federal due process). In my view, the language used in the State Lottery Law is dispositive. Only a lottery conducted by and confined to Missouri is suggested.1 “Where the language of a statute is plain and admits of but one meaning, there is no room for construction.” State ex rel. Missouri State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts v. Southworth, 704 S.W.2d 219, 224 (Mo. banc 1986). I find no references to a “multi-state lottery” or “multi-state operated lottery” in the State Lottery Law.2 By like token I find no lack of clarity in the State Lottery Law.
The General Assembly simply has not acted. Confronted with legislative inaction, the majority presumes to amend the State Lottery Law through broad constitutional interpretion, a leap we are not free to make.3
Second, I find section 313.220, RSMo 1986, as the majority construes it, an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to an executive agency, raising “problems of separation of power.” See Menorah Medical Center v. Health & Education Facilities Authority, 584 S.W.2d 73, 88-91 (Mo. banc 1979) (Donnelly, J., dissenting). Section 313.220 appoints the Commission to “promulgate such rules and regulations governing the establishment and operation of a state lottery as it deemed necessary to fully implement the mandate of the people expressed in the approval of the lottery amendment.”
The majority writes “[w]e sense no purpose in the enabling legislation of limiting the commission’s authority to approve and institute any lottery game”, except those limitations specifically enumerated in sec*178tion 313.230(l)(a).4 It further observes that “the joint committee [on gaming activites] is without power to forbid the commission to institute any lottery game permitted by the constitution and statutes.”
Article III, section 39(b) states the “general assembly shall have authority to authorize a Missouri state lottery.” Id. (emphasis added). The principal opinion detaches the lottery commission from legislative supervision, so long as its actions are “authorized by the constitution and statutes.”
When the lottery commissioners became “vexed because Missourians * * * continued to venture large sums” in more attractive lotteries in sister states, the State Lottery Law directed what steps they were empowered to take:
The commission shall:
* * * * * *
(5) Report to the governor and general assembly any matters which shall require immediate changes in the laws of this state in order * * * to rectify undesirable conditions in connection with the * * * operation of the lottery;
* * * * * *
§ 313.230(5), RSMo 1986 (emphasis added). The principal opinion amends this section to read “[t]he commission may * * *.” In my view, once the matter has been reported, the statutes do not authorize further commission action; I find nothing permitting the commission to “proceed[] on [its] own initiative.” The power of the commission to act ends pending corrective legislation.
The majority indicates that section 313.-220 confers upon the commission broad discretionary power to expand the geographic scope of lottery participation, and, by implication, that this authority is ongoing. On the other hand, the majority finds the following requirement in that section to refer only to “rules * * * necessary to get the lottery started * * *.” “No rule or portion of a rule promulgated under this authority shall become effective until it has been approved by the joint committee on administrative rules.” Id. This is a curious interpretation. I find no hint that this is indicated in sections 313.220 and .230. The language is plain enough.
Whether to participate in a multi-state lottery is a policy matter. And, in different context:
Formulation of policy is a legislature’s primary responsibility, entrusted to it by the electorate, and to the extent Congress delegates authority under indefinite standards, this policy-making function is passed on to other agencies, often not answerable or responsible in the same degree to the people.
Menorah Medical Center v. Health & Education Facilities Authority, 584 S.W.2d at 89 (quoting United States v. Robel, 389 U.S. 258, 276, 88 S.Ct. 419, 430, 19 L.Ed.2d 508 (1967)) (Brennan, J., concurring in result). In my view, the majority injects indefinite standards in construing the State Lottery Law, and thereby grants unintended breadth of authority to the lottery commission.
In sum, the principal opinion is fundamentally flawed because it treats article III, section 39(b) as a declaration of general public policy in Missouri when it is a mere exception.5 The general public policy in Missouri is against lotteries: “The general assembly shall not have power * * * [t]o authorize lotteries * * * for any purpose * * *.” Mo. Const, art. Ill, § 39(9).
I must respectfully dissent.

. See, e.g., § 313.220 (commission empowered to establish rules and regulations reference operation and establishment of “a state lottery"); § 313.235 (director of commission to be qualified to direct operations of "a state-operated lottery’’); § 313.315 (state auditor to conduct biennial audit of accounts and transactions of "the state lottery"); § 313.321 (directing division of proceeds from sale of “Missouri state lottery tickets”); § 313.335 (statute regulating advertising of a "Missouri state lottery”).

. That "[n]othing in the language of the governing statutes inhibits participation in a multi-state lottery” proves nothing. "An implication must be fair and clear to become part of a statute." Smith v. Pettis County, 345 Mo. 839 (1940), 136 S.W.2d 282. Further, the majority draws implied legislative approval from a lack of legislative prohibition, yet finds of no moment that proposals which would have authorized multi-state participation failed legislative approval. The implications to be drawn from these observations should be accorded equal weight; both evince legislative nonaction.

.Were this the position taken by the Court, of course, there would be no need to pass on the constitutionality of participating in a multi-state lottery game. Our decision “should be limited to those questions essential to a proper disposition” of the case. State ex rel. Ellsworth Freight Lines, Inc. v. State Tax Comm'n, 651 S.W.2d 130, 133 (Mo. banc 1983) (emphasis added).

. The majority ignores the fact that we deal here not merely with the price of tickets, § 313.230(l)(b), RSMo 1986; the manner of selecting the winning ticket, id. § 313.230(l)(d), or methods of selling tickets, id., § 313.230(l)(h). Involved here is an important issue of state policy, of state revenues, and of commitment to an interstate venture." These are matters uniquely within the domain of the legislature.

. As a result, the principal opinion is replete with inconsistency. An egregious example: On the one hand, it states that the 1984 amendment is "not self enforcing." On the other, it declares that this Court "should impose only such restrictions [on lotteries] as are clearly required by the statute.”