Court Opinion

ID: 9733186
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:56:44.642056+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:39.132195
License: Public Domain

WOLLMAN, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
Because I adhere to the views set forth in my dissenting opinion in Board of Regents v. Carter, 89 S.D. 40, 56, 228 N.W.2d 621, 629 (1975), I must dissent. Indeed, the majority opinion goes well beyond what the plurality opinion in Carter held, for there Justice Doyle quite carefully pointed out:
The ability of the Regents to unilaterally set salaries, discharge employees, or establish employment qualifications is left intact. The board’s basic right of control is left untouched, and SDCL 3-18 is, therefore, a permissible restriction on the exercise of that control.
89 S.D. at 52, 228 N.W.2d at 628.
Although we did not cite Carter in our opinion in Carlson v. Hudson, 277 N.W.2d 715 (1979), our holding therein was in essence a reaffirmation of the principles set forth in Carter.
Implicit in the majority opinion is the assumption that art. IV, § 8 of the State Constitution constitutes a limitation on the constitutional authority vested in the Board of Regents by art. XIV, § 3 of the constitution. I find no support in the language, logic, or legislative history of art. IV, § 8 for this assumption.
Moreover, even if art. IV, § 8 were construed to constitute an implied amendment of art. XIV, § 3, it can hardly be said that SDCL 3-6A-12, 3-6A-37 and 3-6A-38 were enacted pursuant to any authority granted to the legislature by art. IV, § 8.
I would hold that the statutes in issue here cannot constitutionally be made applicable to the Board of Regents. Accordingly, I would affirm the judgment.