Court Opinion

ID: 9633442
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:47:53.732084+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:35.589074
License: Public Domain

ALMA WILSON,
concurring:
I concur in today's mandate that future legislation shall strictly comply with the constitution’s one-subject rule. The provisions of the Oklahoma Constitution, Article V, §§ 56 and 57 are plain, self-executing restrictions upon the legislative powers of the Legislature and the Governor. With respect to future legislation, prudence dictates the narrow positions set out in today’s opinion: 1) If the Legislature *700presents a multi-subject bill to the Governor, it has violated art. Y, § 57; and, 2) If the Legislature presents a bill to the Governor which makes appropriations to all three branches of government and includes substantive law provisions, it has violated art. V, §§ 56 and 57. I applaud our strict application of art. V, §§ 56 and 57, however, I would directly address the issue of whether the Governor’s partial approvals of House Bill 1721 and House Bill 1743 exceeded the powers granted in art. VI, §§ 11 and 12.
Today we require the Governor to reject any multi-subject bill. Within this duty is the power to initially determine whether a bill is multi-subject. This duty should include the power to reduce the multi-sub-jects in a bill to one-subject. In anticipation of the next, imminent controversy, I would hold, therefore, that the grant of legislative power in art. VI, § 11 imposes an implied duty upon the Governor to conform legislation to the self-executing provisions of art. V, §§ 56 and 57. That is, I would vitalize the Governor’s role as a legislative safety valve.
The constitutional violations committed in the two legislative measures challenged herein are obvious. The provisions of House Bill 1743 relate to two wholly unrelated subjects: 1) Authority to allocate space in the State Capitol Building; and, 2) Authority to sell water from the Sardis Reservoir for use out of this state. Today, we hold the provisions relating to Sardis, in H.B. 1743, failed with the Governor’s rejection of the unrelated provisions. The provisions of H.B. 1721, the budget reconciliation bill, relate to many subjects: 1) Appropriations to all three branches of state government; and, 2) A myriad of subjects for which general provisions of law are legislated. Today, we uphold only the appropriations in H.B. 1721, not line-item vetoed.
These results are fashioned in light of Wiseman v. Oklahoma Board of Corrections, 614 P.2d 551 (Okla.1978). Today’s opinion notes reliance upon Wiseman, as argued by the parties. Wiseman interpreted the veto powers in art. VI, §§ 11 and 12. Wiseman involved a legislative bill making appropriations for the corrections system and legislating substantive law relating to corrections. Neither H.B. 1721 nor H.B. 1743 is similar to the bill involved in the Wiseman controversy. I find no legal support in Wiseman for H.B. 1721 nor H.B. 1743 as presented to the Governor for his approval or rejection. I remain committed to my dissenting vote in Wiseman, a special assignment while I served as district judge. Clearly, the line-item veto power in art. VI, § 12 does not authorize the Governor to line-item veto substantive law provisions in a one-subject bill. I applaud our overruling of Wiseman and its fiction that the Governor may treat a single legislative bill as two bills where the bill includes items of appropriations and substantive law provisions.
Wiseman did not foreshadow the constitutional violations on the face of H.B. 1721 and H.B. 1743. With this controversy, its facts and circumstances, future controversies can be anticipated. Accordingly, I would prefer that, in this matter, we proceed to construe art. VI, §§ 11 and 12 to require the Governor, when functioning as a legislator, to strictly comply with art. V, §§ 56 and 57.
Imposition of a strict application of art. V, §§ 56 and 57 upon the exercise of all legislative power would confine all those vested with legislative power to the same clear and certain rules. Thus, when, in the future, the Governor is presented with a bill such as H.B. 1743, I would hold that the Governor may approve all provisions within the bill which relate to one subject or that the Governor may reject the multi-subject bill in its entirety.1

. Today we require the Governor to reject, in its entirety, any legislative enactment which violates the one-subject rule. Underlying our ruling, is the implied duty of the Governor to execute his legislative duties consistent with art. V, §§ 56 and 57. The effect of our ruling is that the Legislature’s violation of the one-subject rule destroys the Governor's power to approve. The Governor's duty to determine whether a bill is constitutionally impermissible, that is, whether it complies with the one-subject rule, should include the power to approve that part of the bill which is constitutionally permissible; or, to reject those provisions which render the bill *701unconstitutional. Such a construction is consistent with the reasoning in our early decisions interpreting the Governor’s veto power and with our established rules governing the validity of legislation.
In Peebly v. Childers, 95 Okla. 40, 217 P. 1049, 1051 (1923), notwithstanding the separation of powers doctrine, we recognized that the Governor’s veto power is a legislative power strictly limited by the Constitution. We said:
(T)hat, while engaged in considering bills which have passed both houses of the Legislature, and which are presented to him for approval or disapproval, the Governor is acting in a legislative capacity and not as an executive; that while exercising this function the Governor is a special agent, with powers limited by the Constitution, he can only act in the specified mode, and can exercise only the granted powers; if he attempts to exercise them in a different mode, or to exercise powers not given, his act will be wholly ineffectual for any and every purpose.
In Regents of State University v. Trapp, 28 Okla. 83, 113 P. 910, 913 (1911), we held that the Governor does not have power to line-item veto legislative directions relating to the expenditure of a single item of appropriation. Underlying our holding, we explained that the evil to be prevented is forcing the Governor to destroy good legislation in order to defeat one bad item:
The meaning of the foregoing section [art. VI, § 12] is not obscure, and the object it was intended to accomplish is apparent. Without the provision all bills of whatever character could be approved or disapproved by the Governor only in their entirety. But by section 57, art. 5, general appropriation bills may embrace more than one subject; and, if the veto power were confined to the whole bill, the Governor might often be required to destroy much good legislation in order to defeat one item of a bill that was bad, or, on the other hand, be compelled to approve a piece of legislation vicious in part, in order to obtain the benefits of the salutary provisions of the same act. It was to enable the Governor to approach in a measure the consideration and approval of a bill carrying items of appropriation with the same power that the members of the legislative departments are authorized to act upon it, in that he may consider and approve some of the items separately, without being required to approve them all. The Governor’s approval power in § 11 is
vitiated unless we recognize the implied duty and attendant power of the Governor to conform facially impermissible legislation to the constitution, prior to approval of the enactment. Such a position enforces the self-executing nature of art. V, §§ 56 and 57. Ex Parte Cain, 20 Okla. 125, 93 P. 974 (1908) (the validity of these restrictions upon the legislative process without further enactments).
Withholding the Governor’s power to approve any part of a multi-subject bill renders the legislative enactment vain and useless. That is, when the Governor reviews a multi-subject bill he is duty-bound to reject the impermissible bill in its entirety as a vain and useless act. When the courts review a multi-subject bill approved by the Governor, the legal presumption that the legislature has not done a vain and useless thing will remain. See, Farris v. Cannon, 649 P.2d 529, 531 (Okla.1982), wherein we said that the court is duty-bound to fashion a procedure to effectuate the intent of the legislature based upon the presumption that the legislature is never presumed to have done a vain and useless thing and the authority cited at note 4.
Exercise of the Governor’s approval power to remove the constitutionally impermissible portions is consistent with our established rule that only those parts of an act which violate the constitution will be stricken. Englebrecht v. Day, 201 Okla. 585, 208 P.2d 538 (1949); In re Initiative Petition No. 191, 201 Okla. 459, 207 P.2d 266 (1949). It is also consistent with our general rule that constitutional restrictions or limitations upon the Legislature’s authority are to be strictly construed in favor of the validity of the legislative act. See, Draper v. State, 621 P.2d 1142, 1146 (Okla.1980), wherein we said:
Restrictions and limitations upon legislative power are to be construed strictly, and are not to be extended to include matters not covered or implied by the language used. (Footnote omitted.)