Court Opinion

ID: 9855776
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:30:49.396192+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:37:01.246980
License: Public Domain

COFFEY, J.
(concurring). I concur in the opinion of the court because I believe that it has not been proved beyond a reasonable doubt that sec. 971.20, Stats., so materially impairs the circuit court’s function as to constitute a violation of the doctrine of separation of powers. I write separately, however, to emphasize that the Wis. Const, art. VII, sec. 3(1) specifically vests in the supreme court the “superintending and administrative authority over all courts.” The rationale for vesting the administrative authority in the judiciary has been aptly summarized by one court in the following manner.
“The right to control its order of business and to so conduct the same that the rights of all litigants may properly be safeguarded has always been recognized as inherent in courts, and to strip them of that authority would necessarily render them so impotent and useless as to leave little excuse for their existence and place in the hands of the legislative branch of the state, power and control never contemplated by the Constitution.” Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. Long, 122 Okl. 86, 251 P. 486, 489 (1926).
Because the administrative and superintending authority over the courts has been constitutionally vested in this court, I believe that it is incumbent on the legis*76lature to exercise both deference and restraint when legislating in areas that impinge upon this authority. Specifically, I believe that the legislature should not enact laws affecting the administration of justice in this state without conducting a judicial impact review to determine the impact that such legislation will have upon the court system, both as to cost and to personal efficiency. Had the legislature thoroughly studied the impact of the substitution of judge statute (sec. 971.20, Stats.) upon the entire court system, as did the Resource Planning Corporation in a study summarized in the Wisconsin Case Processing Study Final Report quoted in my concurrence to the decision of State ex rel. Tarney v. McCormack, 99 Wis. 2d 220, 238, 239, 298 N.W.2d 552 (1980) (COFFEY, J., concurring), I am convinced that it would not have enacted the law in its present form.
As the majority opinion correctly indicates, the powers of the independent branches of our government overlap to such an extent that it is sometimes difficult to ascertain the proper division of the functions of government between them. On the other hand, there exist some functions, which are most appropriately reserved to a specific branch of the government. This fact was recognized in a recent court decision:
“However, the judicial power, like the executive and legislative powers, possesses constitutional boundaries which can neither be exceeded by the possessor of the power nor intruded upon by one of the other branches.” U.S. v. Brainer, 515 F. Supp. 627, 631 (D. Md. 1981).
The administration of our courts is a function of government which is primarily the concern and responsibility of the judicial branch. This is because the administration of the courts in both an efficient and fair manner is essential to the fulfillment of the judicial branch’s role in our democracy and the judiciary itself is most capable of evaluating and promulgating such rules and proce*77dures as will result in a fair and efficient court system. Primary control of the administration of the courts by the judiciary is essential to the maintenance of an independent and impartial judicial branch. In fact, I seriously doubt that the legislature any longer has the authority to enact such legislation for the authority and responsibility for such rule-making power now rests in the supreme court pursuant to its rule-making power mandated in the 1977 Wisconsin Constitutional Amendment to art. VII, sec. 3.
Inasmuch as this court must have administrative authority over the court system, the court, on the other hand, should be reluctant to alter or interfere with policy decisions made by the executive or legislative branches. These previously determined policy decisions are functions of government that are primarily the concern and responsibility of those branches of our government and the judiciary must refrain from interfering with them except where a clear problem of constitutional dimension is presented.
The importance of administrative autonomy to the maintenance of an independent and effective judiciary was discussed in a recent United States District Court opinion quoted below:
“The significance of administrative autonomy to the maintenance of institutional independence is particularly acute in the case of the Judiciary, which commands far fewer tangible resources than either of the other branches. The Federalist No. 78 (A. Hamilton). The import of avoiding legislative control over the administration of the judicial function was noted by commentators Levin and Amsterdam:
“ ‘There are spheres of activity so fundamental and so necessary to a court, so inherent in its very nature as a court, that to divest it of its absolute command within these spheres is to make meaningless the very phrase judicial power.’ [emphasis in original].
*78“‘Legislative Control Over Judicial Rule Making: A Problem in Constitutional Revision,' 107 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1, 30 (1958). These writers expand their description of these exclusively judicial concerns by suggesting that
“. . . there is a third realm of judicial activity, neither substantive nor adjective law, a realm of ‘proceedings which are so vital to the efficient functioning of a court as to be beyond legislative power. This is the area of minimum functional integrity of the courts, what is essential to the existence, dignity and functions of the court as a constitutional tribunal and from the very fact that it is a court.’ Any statute which moves so far into this realm of judicial affairs as to dictate to a judge how he shall judge or how he shall comport himself in judging or which seeks to surround the act of judging with hampering conditions clearly offends the constitutional scheme of the separation of powers and will be held invalid.” [footnotes omitted]. Id. at 31-32.
The substitution of judge statute concerned in the case at bar has a substantial impact on the effective and efficient administration of the courts. The expanded right to substitute judges freely without cause all too frequently creates delay in the handling of cases and disrupts the overall calendar of the courts, as well as that of the other parties, their counsel and witnesses. Because of the impact of the substitution of judge statute on the administration of the courts, I believe that the appropriate circumstances under which to allow a substitution of judge is a question which might be more appropriately addressed by the judiciary and by the legislature only with substantial input from the judicial branch.
My criticisms of the liberal substitution of judge procedures provided in sec. 971.20, Stats., and its civil counterpart, sec. 801.58, Stats., are set out at length in my concurrence to State ex rel. Tarney v. McCormack, supra at 236, and will not be repeated here. I would like to add only that the liberal substitution of judge rules add considerable expense to the operation of our courts as well as causing significant delay. During this time *79where the public and all branches of the government are demanding fiscal austerity in government, I believe it is necessary and proper that the legislature evaluate the limited benefits of the liberal substitution of judge rules in light of its significant impact as to cost and efficiency in the judicial system. If the substitution of judge rules are evaluated in this light, I believe the legislature will conclude, as I have, that the statute creates proceedings for the substitution of judges without cause that are unduly expensive, unnecessary and subject to proven abuse where a duly elected judge can be substituted out of his court responsibilities at the whim and caprice of a minority of disgruntled litigants. Indeed, as the majority points out, the vast majority of states, (41 of 50) have not adopted a peremptory substitution of judge rule and, thus, Wisconsin is in the distinct minority of states favoring this kind of substitution of judge rule.