Court Opinion

ID: 9680074
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:18:46.572289+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:54.244067
License: Public Domain

BARDGETT, Judge
(concurring).
In view of the dissent1 of Seiler, C. J., I deem it advisable to briefly state my views on the major portion of that dissent.
Just about four weeks ago this court upheld the constitutionality of the Missouri Campaign Finance and Disclosure Law in Chamberlin et al. v. Missouri Elections Commission et al., (59505 Mo. banc 6/21/76). In that case this court, quoting from State ex rel. State Highway Commission v. Paul et al., 368 S.W.2d 419, 422 (Mo. banc 1963), held:
“It is a cardinal rule of statutory construction that where a statute is fairly susceptible of a construction in harmony with the Constitution it must be given that construction by the courts and, unless the statute is clearly repugnant to the organic law, its constitutionality must be upheld. City of Joplin v. Industrial Commission of Missouri, Mo., 329 S.W.2d 687, 692[6]; Brown v. Morris, 365 Mo. 946, 290 S.W.2d 160, 167[8]; State on inf. Dalton v. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer Dist., 365 Mo. 1, 275 S.W.2d 225, 234[23]; State ex inf. McKittrick v. American Colony Ins. Co., 336 Mo. 406, 80 S.W.2d 876, 882-883[5]; State ex rel. Barrett v. May, 290 Mo. 302, 235 S.W. 124, 126[3].
*723“Courts will not ordinarily pass on constitutional questions where the case presented may be properly decided without doing so. McIntosh v. Connecticut General Life Ins. Co., Mo., 366 S.W.2d 409, 412[2]; City of St. Joseph v. Roller, Mo., 363 S.W.2d 609, 612[6]; Rider v. Julian, 365 Mo. 313, 282 S.W.2d 484, 497[23].”
The court said that the two subsections under attack in Chamberlin were fairly susceptible of a construction that will obviate any need to reach and decide the Fourteenth Amendment question (equal protection) decided by the trial court. The court then construed the two subsections, which facially were in conflict, so as to cause the ambiguous or conflicting subsections to be applied equally and therefore constitutionally. In so doing this court brought the subsections within the constitutional requirement.
The legislature is deemed to be aware of the inhibitions imposed by the constitution and therefore if statutory language is susceptible to two constructions, one constitutional and the other unconstitutional, it should be construed in a manner consistent with the provisions of the constitution. City of Kirkwood v. Allen, 399 S.W.2d 30 (Mo. banc 1966); The Vessel “Abby Dodge” v. United States, 223 U.S. 166, 175, 32 S.Ct. 310, 56 L.Ed. 390 (1912).
In the instant case there is no provision in the statute under attack which directs or authorizes the use by a school of the award money for sectarian religious purposes. To the contrary, it appears that the proscription against the use of such funds for a course of study leading to a degree of theology or divinity clearly evidences a legislative intent that the money not be used for sectarian religious purposes. The coordinating board for higher education is the administrative agency charged with implementation of the program established by sections 173.200-173.235 and is vested with the power to “promulgate reasonable rules and regulations for the exercise of its functions and the effectuation of the purposes of sections 173.200 to 173.235.” Sec. 173.-210, RSMo Supp.1975. It is clear from the “purpose” section of the act (sec. 173.200) and the other provisions of the act that it was not the intent of the legislature to provide money for sectarian religious purposes.
Such a construction of the instant statute by this court comports with the rules of construction articulated and applied in Chamberlin, supra, and City of Kirkwood v. Allen, supra, and would be consistent with this court’s duty to construe legislative enactments so as to uphold their constitutionality when possible rather than to strike down a legislative act because of an alleged omission when the constitutions of the United States and Missouri fill in that alleged omission and provide the perimeter within which the law can constitutionally operate.
Under the act the coordinating board has the obligation to promulgate regulations so as to insure that the funds are not used for sectarian religious purposes in conformity with the provisions of the constitutions of the United States and the State of Missouri.
The foregoing is set forth because of the dissenting opinion of SEILER, C. J., although it is quite clear under the majority opinion of MORGAN, J., that the coordinating board has the obligation to administer the act in a constitutional manner and therefore to take such steps as necessary to insure that the funds not be used for sectarian religious purposes.

. I refrain from commenting on the quotation appearing in the dissent of Seiler, C. J., from Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 67 S.Ct. 504, 91 L.Ed. 711 (1946), because it is taken from the dissenting opinion of Jackson, J., and is not the law of that case and is not representative of the United States Supreme Court’s disposition of the matter.