Court Opinion

ID: 9725512
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:50:52.459814+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:16.031336
License: Public Domain

SHERAN, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent for these reasons:
The principle that courts should be slow to declare laws unconstitutional has special force where we are dealing with legislative efforts to balance the interests of employers and employees in the field of workers’ compensation created by the Legislature in the first instance and therefore uniquely subject to its authority. Particularly is this the case where, as here, adjustments to the law have been, in significant part, the product of compromise and agreement. The position of workers’ compensation judge is not a public office, and this being the case, the Legislature has authority to specify reasonable qualifications for those appointed to these posts.
It is reasonable for the Legislature to prefer that the occupational experience of persons named to serve as workers’ compensation judges be more diversified than has been the case in the past. Given the fact that all workers’ compensation judges serving as such when the law was passed had previously been Section 176.261 attorneys at some stage in their professional careers, I believe the Legislature acted rationally in placing a limited restraint on the employment at this time of additional judges having the same kind of experience in their professional background.