Court Opinion

ID: 9562075
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:21:06.037032+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:11.944891
License: Public Domain

Nichols, Justice,
dissenting. I dissent from the first division of the majority opinion, the other divisions necessarily controlled thereby and the judgment of affirmance.
“In the absence of some other exclusive method of determination provided by the Constitution, whether an amendment has been properly proposed and adopted according to the requirements of the existing Constitution, and has become a part of the fundamental law of the State, is generally a judicial question.” Hammond v. Clark, 136 Ga. 313 (1) (71 SE 479, 38 LRA (NS) 77).
I recognize the right of the people to amend the Constitution (the people’s Constitution) in almost any conceivable manner so long as the amendments are made in accordance with law. In Goolsby v. Stephens, 155 Ga. 529, 540 (117 SE 439), with two Justices dissenting on other grounds, it was held with reference to the ballot submitting a constitutional amendment: “It was not necessary that the entire amendment should have been printed on the ballots. The reference on the ballots to the proposed amendment is to inform the voters what they are voting for as an amendment to the Constitution; and such reference is sufficient when it contains enough to enable the voters to ascertain for what amendment they are voting. When this is done, the voters ‘ can be fully informed as to its full provisions by looking to the proposed amendment.” (Emphasis supplied).
The decision in Cooney v. Foote, 142 Ga. 647, 654 (83 SE 537), with one Justice expressly not concurring in all that was *422said, held: “It was never contemplated that the entire proposed amendment should be printed on the ballot. It was within legislative discretion to adopt some formula by which the voter would express his assent or dissent to the proposed amendment. The formula prescribed by the legislature was not intended for the purpose of informing the voter as to the full contents of the amendment. On the contrary, the formula was intended as the declaration by the voter of his approval or disapproval of the amendment which had been published in each congressional district. The amendment was submitted to the elector, and the formula prescribed was simply to elicit his expression as to whether or not the proposed amendment should become a part of the organic law. The formula written or printed on his ballot was but the legislative means of obtaining his expression upon the published proposal; and when he adopted the formula he indicated his vote upon the whole amendment which was submitted, and not a mere part.” (Emphasis supplied). In that case the ballot described the amendment proposed although of necessity it did not include the entire amendment.
In Townsend v. Smith, 144 Ga. 792, 795 (87 SE 1039), with Mr. Chief Justice Fish absent, it was held that while a proposed amendment to the Constitution does not stand on the same footing as an ordinary Act of the General Assembly, yet when a proposed amendment to the Constitution is in the form of an Act, having a caption, it is permissible to look to the caption to determine what change is intended in the event of an ambiguity.
The proposed amendment here under consideration read as follows:
“A Resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution so as to provide for the payment for taking or damaging private property for public road and street purposes; to provide for the submission of this amendment for ratification or rejection; and for other purposes.
“Be it resolved by the General Assembly of Georgia:
“Section 1. Article I, Section III, Paragraph I of the Constitution is hereby amended by striking the period at the end *423thereof and inserting in lieu thereof a comma, and by adding the following language:
“ ‘except that when private property is taken or damaged for public road and street purposes by the State and the counties and the municipalities of the State, just and adequate compensation therefor need not be paid until the same has been finally fixed and determined as provided by law, but such just and adequate compensation shall then be paid in preference to all other obligations except bonded indebtedness. The General Assembly may by law require the condemnor to make prepayment against adequate compensation as a condition precedent to the exercise of the right of eminent domain and provide for the disbursement of the same to the end that the rights and equities of the property owner, lien holders and the State and its subdivisions may be protected.’ So that when so amended, said Paragraph I shall read as follows:
“ ‘Paragraph I. In case of necessity, private ways may be granted upon just compensation being first paid by the applicant. Private property shall not be taken, or damaged, for public purposes, without just and adequate compensation being first paid, except that when private property is taken or damaged for public road and street purposes by the State and the counties and the municipalities of the State, just and adequate compensation therefor need not be paid until the same has been finally fixed and determined as provided by law but such just and adequate compensation shall then be paid in preference to all other obligations except bonded indebtedness. The General Assembly may by law require the condemnor to make prepayment against adequate compensation as a condition precedent to the exercise of the right of eminent domain and provide for the disbursement of the same to the end that the rights and equities of the property owner, lien holders and the State and its subdivisions may be protected.’
“Section 2. When the above proposed amendment to the Constitution shall have been agreed to by two-thirds of the members elected to each of the two branches of the General Assembly, and the same has been entered on their journals with the ‘Ayes’ and ‘Nays’ taken thereon, such proposed amendment *424shall be published and submitted as provided in Article XIII, Section I, Paragraph I of the Constitution of Georgia of 1945, ■as amended.
“The ballot submitting the above proposed amendment shall have written or printed thereon the following:
“ ‘For ratification of amendment to the Constitution so as to provide for the payment for taking or damaging private property for public road and street purposes.”
“ 'Against ratification of amendment to the Constitution so as to provide for the payment for taking or damaging private property for public road and street purposes.’
“All persons desiring to vote in favor of adopting the proposed amendment shall vote for ratification of the amendment, and all persons desiring to vote against the adoption of the proposed amendment shall vote against ratification.
“If such amendment shall be ratified as provided in said Paragraph of the Constitution, it shall become a part of the Constitution of this State. The returns of the election shall be made in like manner as returns for elections for members of the General Assembly, and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of State to ascertain the result and certify the result to the Governor, who shall issue his proclamation thereon.”
Prior to the proposed amendment the Constitution provided “for the payment for the taking or damaging of private property for public road and street purposes.” No amendment was necessary to accomplish this purpose. In Woodside v. City of Atlanta, 214 Ga. 75 (103 SE2d 108), with dissents as to when a “taking” of private property occurs, it was recognized by all the members of the court as it was then constituted that just and adequate compensation must be first paid.
Thus the caption as well as the ballot proposed to do what was already required. The amendment was for another purpose. It was to provide for an exception. The amendment as originally introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives did not include the second sentence but this was added as an amendment before the same was voted upon. See House Journal, 1960 Session, p. 516.
Under the purported amendment, private property could be *425physically taken for public road and street purposes and no payment made until years later after the issue as to what constituted just and adequate compensation had been litigated through the court system of the State one or more times. Under the amendment to such purported amendment the General Assembly may, but is not required to, provide for some prepayment as against just and adequate compensation.
At the General Election whereat the proposed amendment was submitted to the electorate, 19 other general amendments and 68 local amendments were also submitted. The local amendments were voted on in various subdivisions of the State. See Ga. L. 1961, p. 754 et seq. While the amendments are published throughout the State yet the voters have a right to expect that they will not be misled by the General Assembly.
None of the decisions cited by the majority hold that a ballot submitting a constitutional amendment may ask the voter to vote for or against an issue entirely different from the amendment actually proposed.
Under the majority opinion any question proposed by the General Assembly would be sufficient. Under this rationale if two amendments were proposed, one to provide capital punishment for speeding in excess of 2 mph over the posted speed limit and the other to provide paraplegic war veterans with an additional homestead exemption, if the ballots as prescribed by the General Assembly read for or against capital punishment for speeding when referring to the paraplegic war veteran amendment and for or against additional homestead exemptions for paraplegic war veterans when referring to capital punishment for speeding, the results of such election (where one amendment was ratified and the other rejected) would stand.
This is nothing more or less than an abdication of the judicial powers and duties of this court.
Moreover, in Seago v. Richmond County, 218 Ga. 151 (126 SE2d 657), it was held that a statute (Ga. L. 1939, p. 305) provided for the Governor to prescribe the language to be used in presenting constitutional amendments to the voters and required that the ballot state “the nature of the proposed amendment” with the requirement:
*426“In so preparing the form of the ballot, the Governor shall use such language as will enable the voters to intelligently pass upon any such proposed amendment and intelligently register their votes concerning the same.” P. 155. This 1939 Act was not repealed until 1962 (Ga. L. 1962, p. 690). The purported amendment in the case sub judice was placed on the General Election ballot in 1960. Thus is presented the question of the effect of the 1956 constitutional amendment (Ga. L. 1956, p. 637) on the Act of 1939.
Under the decisions exemplified by McKnight v. City of Decatur, 200 Ga. 611, 619 (37 SE2d 915), the effect of a constitutional amendment upon a valid existing law is not to repeal the same but to require construction consistent with such amendment. The 1939 Act, supra, insofar as material here, did two things. It (1) placed the duty on the Governor to prepare the ballots submitting constitutional amendments proposed by the General Assembly, and (2) directed how the ballots should be prepared. Properly construing such Act after the 1956 amendment, supra, the duty of preparing the ballot was transferred to the General Assembly but the direction as to how such ballots should be prepared still remained in the statute law of Georgia. Properly construed the Seago case is applicable to the present case and the language on the ballot prepared by the' General Assembly did not permit “the voters to intelligently pass upon any such proposed amendment and intelligently register their votes concerning the same.” This purported amendment never became a part of the Constitution of Georgia.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Hawes concurs in this dissent.