Court Opinion

ID: 9723028
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:00:34.519239+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:44.109956
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
Although I come under the conceptual umbrella of the majority opinion, and therefore concur, I step out to note the rain which fell upon Baker v. Jackson, 372 N.W.2d 142 (S.D.1985). Rain is ordinarily refreshing. Abrogation of our ruling in Baker, as noted in the majority opinion, was acid rain.1 A Legislature must stay within its own separate branch of government. The Legislature cannot interpret the constitution. The courts in this State have this function. In Baker, in its abrogation, the Legislature assumed the power to interpret the State Constitution. Thoughts which are borrowed from this nation’s history can lend a certain dignity to the preservation of the respective branches of government. See, The Federalist Nos. 47-51 (J. Madison) (on separation of powers). See, also, South Dakota Constitution, Article II.2 James Madison was a principal contributor to the written document known as the United States Constitution. He is often referred to as “the Father of the Constitution”. Through his pen, and mind, streams the system of checks and balances, which regulate our Republic.
SDCL 9-20-18 referenced Baker. This statute now abrogates a portion of Baker. SDCL 9-20-19, which together with SDCL 9-20-18 and 7-18A-15.1 comprised 1986 S.D.Sess. Laws Ch. 73 (H.B. 1154), contains the following phraseology:
Any legislative decision of a governing body is subject to the referendum process. A legislative decision is one that enacts a permanent law or lays down a rule of conduct or course of policy for the guidance of citizens or their officers. Any matter of a permanent or general character is a legislative decision.
No administrative decision of a governing body is subject to the referendum process.... Hiring, disciplining and setting the salaries of employees are administrative decisions.
*637These immediate words, expressed in a statute, are written like a judicial opinion. One would believe that they are written by a judicial officer. It sounds like it; it looks like it; it has a judicial ring. Our Legislature clearly stepped out of bounds by venturing into this Court’s constitutional power.
In defining what is legislative, can the Legislature redefine itself? How can a Legislature interpret a document (State Constitution) which created it? It should not and cannot, within the framework of constitutional government. As Alexander Hamilton explained:
If it be said that the legislative body are themselves the constitutional judges of their own powers, and that the construction they put upon them is conclusive upon the other departments, it may be answered, that this cannot be the natural presumption, where it is not to be collected from any particular provisions in the constitution. It is not otherwise to be supposed that the constitution could intend to enable the representatives of the people to substitute their will to that of their constituents. It is far more rational to suppose that the courts were designed to be an intermediate body between the people and the legislature, in order, among other things, to keep the latter within the limits assigned to their authority. The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts. A constitution is in fact, and must be, regarded by the judges as a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought of course to be preferred; or in other words, the constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents.
The Federalist No. 78, at 524-5 (A. Hamilton).3 The United States Supreme Court is in accord:
The Constitution sought to divide the delegated powers of the new Federal Government into three defined categories, Legislative, Executive, and Judicial, to assure, as nearly as possible, that each Branch of government would confine itself to its assigned responsibility. The hydraulic pressure inherent within each of the separate Branches to exceed the outer limits of its power, even to accomplish desirable objectives, must be resisted.
I.N.S. v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919, 951, 103 S.Ct. 2764, 2784, 77 L.Ed.2d 317, 345 (1983). Whether actions are an exercise of legislative power depends not upon their form but upon “whether they contain matter which is properly to be regarded as legislative in its character and effect”. Chadha, 462 U.S., at 952, 103 S.Ct., at 2784, 77 L.Ed.2d, at 345. “Legislative” is for the judiciary to define, not the legislative branch.

. See State v. Myers, 411 N.W.2d 402, 405 n. 2 (S.D.1987) (Henderson, J., specially concurring), for dissertation on South Dakota State Legislature creating a subcommittee on judicial opinion. Therein, I warned of a peril to the legitimate function of the tripartite system of government. By "abrogating” decisions of this Court is the State Legislature "abrogating" the power of this Court to legitimately function as the third branch of government?

. It states: “Division of the Powers of Government: The powers of government of the state are divided into three distinct departments, the legislative, executive and judicial; and the powers and duties of each tire prescribed by this Constitution.” The Legislature cannot define its own power and duties. Only the State Constitution can. >

. Eighty-five short essays, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay became The Federalist Papers. Federalist Paper No. 78 was written by Hamilton to explain how the institution of judicial review could preserve the United States republic. These papers were published from October 27, 1787 to August 16, 1788, to convince the voters of New York to persuade their legislators to vote for the proposed Federal Constitution. Today, the thought behind Hamilton’s essay is as important as when it was written. As Hamilton pointed out, the judiciary was the "least dangerous" of the three branches. For, he wrote, that the judiciary did not have the sword of the executive, nor the purse of the legislature, and it could only depend upon the persuasive power of its judgment. Thus, my duty is clear: To constantly check on the State Legislature, and to resist as Chadha instructs me, to prevent that branch from exceeding "the outer limits of its power”. I.N.S. v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919, 951, 103 S.Ct. 2764, 2784, 77 L.Ed.2d 317, 345 id.