Court Opinion

ID: 9807514
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:08:06.37575+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:41:26.557564
License: Public Domain

Stacy, C. J.,
concurring: By Art. IV, sec. 2, of the Constitution, the judicial power of the State is vested in a court for the trial of impeachments, a Supreme Court, Superior Courts, courts of justices of the peace, and such other courts, inferior to the Supreme Court, as may be established by law; and this power — the power to say, not what the law ought to be, but what the law is — carries with it, not only the authority, but also the duty, to declare acts of the Legislature void when in conflict with the Constitution. R. R. v. Cherokee County, 177 N. C., 86. Such authority is inherent in the judicial power and it is obligatory on the courts to declare the law in all cases, when properly presented. But it is only in cases calling for the exercise of judicial power that the courts may render harmless invalid acts of the Legislature; hence, for this reason, they never anticipate questions of constitutional law in advance of the necessity of deciding them; nor do they venture advisory opinions on constitutional questions. Person v. Doughton, 186 N. C., p. 725. It is only when the courts are exercising the judicial power vested in them by the Constitution that they are authorized to hold acts of the Legislature in contravention of the organic law. Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, 261 U. S., 525.