Court Opinion

ID: 9514940
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:52:36.394728+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:22.930311
License: Public Domain

AMUNDSON, Justice
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
[¶ 42.] I concur on issues 1, 2 and 3. I, however, part company with the majority as to issue 4. Although I agree that the sale of the cement plant will probably benefit the State, I cannot disregard my solemn duty to interpret our state constitution. As stated by Justice Biegelmeier in his dissent in State v. Jorgenson, 81 S.D. 447,136 N.W.2d 870, 881 (1965),
*462It is not a pleasant duty to examine questions involving the constitutionality of acts of the legislature. The result may be such as necessarily compels a court to declare the acts of a co-ordinate branch of the government of no effect, and the reported cases show with what reluctance courts are compelled to conclusions involving such grave and delicate consequences. Yet a court can no more avoid this than any other duty. So much was said by Kingman, C. J., in Graham v. Horton, 6 Kan. 343 (2nd ed 209). Our duty, therefore, is a responsibility which, as with other departments, we bear with equal fidelity to the people of our state. It is with that frame of mind that this duty is assumed.
[¶ 43.] In examining this record, it is patently clear that the facilitating acts of the Legislature do not go to the immediate support of government. While these acts will certainly assist in the support of government in the future, it cannot be said that the Legislature offered a rational basis for declaring the sale of the cement plant an emergency.
[¶ 44.] The people, under our constitution, have the right to vote on legislation through the referendum process, unless the Legislature has declared an emergency. As this Court stated in State ex rel. Wegner v. Pyle, 55 S.D. 269, 226 N.W. 280, 283 (1929), “[t]here can be no power in the Legislature to conclude by its action a reserved right belonging to the people. To so hold would be to sanction a usurpation of power and make the Legislature supreme.... If it is necessary, the voters can adopt it.” Without a showing of an immediate need to declare an emergency to support state government, the people should be able to cast their vote if they are able to obtain sufficient signatures to place the enacted law on the ballot. Although deference is given to legislative acts, such deference does not allow for the circumvention of constitutional provisions in order to expedite a favorable sale of a state asset, which sale has been approved by all members of this Court.
[¶ 45.] Therefore, I respectfully dissent on issue 4.