Court Opinion

ID: 9765269
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:57:40.45369+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:07.196772
License: Public Domain

WILNER, J,
concurs.
It is neither customary nor helpful for the Court to tile four opinions in a case. This is, however, a rare and extraordinary case, in which the Court is required to determine whether one Branch of the State Government has unlawfully usurped the Constitutional authority of another. In enacting Senate Bill 1 (2006 Md. Laws, Special Session, ch. 5), the General Assembly, *604for policy reasons it thought important, has allegedly intruded upon the ability of the incumbent Governor to execute the laws of the State, which, under Article II, §§ 1 and 9 of the Maryland Constitution, it is his Constitutional prerogative and duty to do, and assumed some of that authority for itself.
The issue before the Court, though politically charged, is entirely a legal one — whether the General Assembly has the Constitutional authority to do what it did. The issue goes to scope and meaning, in a 21st Century context, of an 18th Century doctrine that has been part of the organic law of this State since 1776 and that is still recognized as an essential pillar of our Constitutional Democracy, and it is not surprising that the judges of the Court have some differing views as to how that doctrine plays out in a modern and more complex world.1
I join the judgment of the Court and I agree with much of what Judges Cathell and Harrell have said in their respective opinions, one or the other of which Chief Judge Bell and Judges Raker and Greene have joined. For the reasons they state, I believe that Judge Battaglia is incorrect in her view that an appeal does not lie from the denial of a temporary restraining order, and, in light of Article XVII, §§ 5 and 9 of the Constitution, she is probably wrong as well in assuming or suggesting that members of the Public Service Commission *605are not civil officers, although, because I do not believe that Article II, § 15 is implicated in any telling manner, I do not regard that error as significant in this case. I also cannot accept Judge Battaglia’s apparent conclusion that Article 8 provides no effective Constitutional restraint upon the Legislature’s effort to assume absolute control over the removal and replacement of incumbent Executive Branch officers. If the General Assembly has the Constitutional power to do what it has done in §§ 12 and 22 of Senate Bill 1, we would, indeed, have the legal foundation for a parliamentary form of Government, which is not what Article 8 allows.
I differ from Judge Cathell only in that I would rest the decision solely on the basis of Article 8 of the Declaration of Rights and Article II, §§ 1 and 9 of the Constitution. I do not believe that the first part of § 12 of Senate Bill 1 — ending prematurely the terms of the incumbent members of the Public Service Commission — of itself violates Article II, § 15 of the Constitution. I differ from Judge Harrell in that I do not think that we can so neatly parse § 12, finding the firing of the incumbent Commissioners to be valid but not the method of their replacement. It is the entirety of the legislative assault that runs afoul of Article 8. It may well be that if the General Assembly had done no more than end the terms of the incumbents and direct the Governor to appoint new members, subject to Senate confirmation, there would be no Constitutional problem, but the firing and replacement provisions in § 12 of Senate Bill 1 are so locked together that, despite a severance clause in the statute, they really cannot, in my view, be separated in light of an Article 8 challenge.
I agree entirely with Judges Cathell and Harrell that the Legislature, if it chose, could abolish or reconstitute the Public Service Commission (or any other statutory board or commission), even if the effect of doing so would be the premature ending of existing terms of incumbent members, and, as part of any reconstitution of the Commission, it could alter the method of appointment. The Legislature has not abolished or reconstituted the Commission, however. It has left the Commission essentially intact but simply ended the terms of the *606incumbent Commissioners and sharply curtailed the power of the Governor to appoint their successors. That creates issues not presented in an abolition or restructuring of the agency, issues that most clearly implicate, and in my view run afoul of, Article 8. If the Legislature has the Constitutional authority to do what it has done in §§ 12 and 22 of Senate Bill 1, it can, indeed, as Judges Cathell and Harrell point out, erode to the point of impotence the ability of the Governor to discharge his responsibilities under Article II, §§ 1 and 9 of the Constitution. For these reasons, I join the judgment announced by Judge Cathell.2
RAKER and HARRELL, JJ., concur and dissent.

. Judge Cathell has recounted in some detail the historical evolution of the separation of powers concept, its acceptance as a core element of 18th Century political philosophy, and, in particular, its critical role in the development of American Constitutional government, and there is no need to repeat what he has said. It is important to stress, however, that the marvelous articulation of that doctrine in Article 8 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights — "That the Legislative, Executive and Judicial powers of Government ought to be forever separate and distinct from each other; and no person exercising the functions of one of said Departments shall assume or discharge the duties of any other” — is not an anachronism. The encroachment of Government into the private lives of citizens is far more pervasive now than it was in 1776, and, if anything, there is greater need now than there was then to preclude any Branch of Government from usurping power allocated to another Branch and thereby assuming a predominance and aggregation of power that the Constitution does not allow.

. I share the concern expressed by Judge Cathell that, given the limited scope of the issues presented by the parties, which go only to membership of the Commission, the Court’s judgment may well create some very significant difficulties, by reason of other provisions in Senate Bill 1, in terms of the authority of the incumbent Commissioners to perform the statutory duties assigned to them. We cannot resolve those difficulties in this case; the issues are simply not before us.