Court Opinion

ID: 9736290
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:49:58.247439+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:05.537985
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
I wish to specially concur to express: (1) The appointment by the Governor of the State Treasurer in April 1983 1 to the office of Commissioner of School and Public Lands until the unexpired term could be filled at the next general election was void. These two offices are separate and distinct with individual salaries and varied responsibilities and cannot constitutionally be held by the same individual.2 S.D. Const, art. IV, § 7. The constitution refers to different constitutional officers “who shall severally hold their offices for a term of four years.” S.D. Const, art. IV, § 7 (emphasis supplied). (2) The law known as HB 1328 was a nullity as concerns constitutional officers — for the language of Mother Consti*176tution prevails.3 It would bode those well, in the Executive and Legislative Branches, and their staffs, to read the constitution before passing extraneous legislation. It is the source and power of all law and should be consulted, from the inception, when weighty affairs of state surface in the public arena.

. The State Treasurer resigned from the position of Commissioner of School and Public Lands on July 25, 1984. Jack Gerken, via gubernatorial appointment, assumed the office on August 2, 1984; he resigned on November 30, 1984. Sheldon Cotton received a gubernatorial appointment on December 17, 1984, and continues to serve in that capacity.

. For historic purposes, I take judicial notice of official returns in the State Auditor’s Office that a constitutional amendment to combine the offices of the State Treasurer and the Commissioner of School and Public Lands was submitted to a vote of the people in November 1984 and was defeated.

. I do not cast aside the long-standing precedent and public policy enunciated in State ex rel. Rearick v. Bd. of Comm’rs of Lyman County, 34 S.D. 256, 145 N.W. 548 (1914), and Noel v. Cunningham, 68 S.D. 606, 5 N.W.2d 402 (1942), relative to offices, other than state offices, being filled by appointment and such appointees holding office only until the vacancy can be filled by electors at a general election.