Court Opinion

ID: 9697206
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:08:38.395481+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:29.948411
License: Public Domain

Spencer, J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion herein. The opinion cites American Fed. of S., C. & M. Emp. v. Department of Public Institutions, 195 Neb. 253, 237 N. W. 2d 841 (1976), a Per Curiam plurality opinion, to support its opinion herein. I joined in the dissent to that opinion, and suggest its *181applicability to the opinion herein.
The Department of Roads has been designated as an executive department. In my judgment, the Department of Roads is not embraced within the language of Article XV, section 9, of the Constitution of Nebraska, which provides: “Laws may be enacted providing for the investigation, submission and determination of controversies between employers and employees in any business or vocation affected with a public interest, and for the prevention of unfair business practices and unconscionable gains in any business or vocation affecting the public welfare. An Industrial Commission may be created for the purpose of administering such laws, and appeals shall lie to the Supreme Court from the final orders and judgments of such commission.”
I am now convinced this constitutional provision was not intended to bear upon or affect governmental units. In this respect, I am now in full agreement with the conclusion set out in the dissent in School Dist. of Seward Education Assn. v. School Dist. of Seward, 188 Neb. 772, 199 N. W. 2d 752 (1972). I authored that opinion. It was premised on the plenary power of the Legislature over school districts, as suggested by the following paragraph:
“The Legislature has plenary power and control over school districts, including provision for the appointment or election of governing bodies thereof. Consequently, it may provide limitations on any authority to be exercised by a school board. If the Legislature has such complete control over public school districts, it follows, by the enactment of L. B. 15, Laws 1969, chapter 407, page 1405, it was exercising that control.”
There is nothing in that opinion to suggest, even by inference, that the Legislature has the same power and control over executive departments. I am now convinced that in adopting Article XV, section 9, Constitution of Nebraska, the Constitutional Conven*182tion of 1920 clearly intended to exempt the state and its political subdivisions from the operations of the Court of Industrial Relations. We have opened a Pandora’s box, by judicial construction, which can ultimately destroy and nullify Article II, section 1, Constitution of Nebraska, which reads: “The powers of the government of this state are divided into three distinct departments, the legislative, executive and judicial, and no person * * * shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, $ * * ”
White, C. J., joins in this dissent.