Court Opinion

ID: 9701557
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:24:47.393806+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:24.898405
License: Public Domain

SCHREIBER, J.,
dissenting and concurring.
When tested by the principles decided today in General Assembly v. Byrne, 90 N.J. 376 (1982), the New Jersey Building Authority Act, N.J.S.A. 52:18A-78.1, et seq., includes a classic example of a violation of the state constitutional requirement of separation of powers by enabling the Legislature to control an executive agency’s essential functions. The Legislature has refined this intrusion by vesting each of its components, the Senate and Assembly, as well as their individual leaders, with the power to thwart the agency’s ability to execute the law. It has thereby violated the constitutional structure of bicameralism. Lastly, the Act implicitly violates the Presentment Clause of the Constitution, which requires submission to the governor for his approval or disapproval before a law can become effective.
Whether a power is executive, legislative or judicial is not always clear. In some situations the subject may be deemed to have the characteristic of more than one type of power. For example, some rules of evidence are distinctly procedural in nature and may be promulgated by the judiciary. Others have a much more substantive gloss and may be more appropriately enacted by the Legislature. See Evidence Act of 1960, L. 1960, c. 52. When that occurs, a sharing of power may be appropriate. See Knight v. Margate, 86 N.J. 374, 388-89 (1981). In other situations it may be fitting for one branch of government to exercise a power traditionally belonging to another. Thus, in executing and administering a law, the executive branch of government may legislate by adopting rules and may adjudicate by resolving adversarial interests. A third category is illustrat*412ed by one branch being called upon to perform an act incidental to a function belonging to another branch of government. Thus, the Chief Justice has been given the power to designate certain public trustees of the Prudential Insurance Company although execution of the insurance laws is an executive prerogative.
However, an outer limit of all these intrusions is that none may undermine the independence and integrity of a branch of government or that branch’s ability to exercise the constitutional check with which it has been endowed. See Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52, 292-93, 47 S.Ct. 21, 84-85, 71 L.Ed. 160, 242 (1926) (Brandeis, J., dissenting). Examination of the problem before us should be made with these underlying principles in mind.
The New Jersey Building Authority (Authority) resembles numerous other agencies charged with carrying out their respective laws. .The Authority, a corporate body, has been placed within the Department of the Treasury. It has 12 directors, including the State Treasurer, Comptroller of the Treasury, and Chairman of the Commission on Capital Budgeting and Planning, these three being members ex officio. The Governor appoints the remaining nine directors, two of whom are to be recommended by the President of the Senate and two by the Speaker of the General Assembly. The directors have four-year terms, except that those recommended by the legislative leaders may serve only during the two-year legislative term in which they are appointed. Any action taken by the Authority requires at least seven affirmative votes. All such action must be reflected in the minutes of the meeting and are subject to a gubernatorial veto.
The Authority’s general powers are typical of regulatory agencies. It may adopt by-laws and an official seal, sue and be sued, and enter into contracts necessary or incidental to the performance of its duties. Its reason for existence is to provide office space for state agencies. To accomplish this the Authori*413ty is authorized to raise the necessary capital funds by issuing bonds and notes, the aggregate principal amount not to exceed $250,000,000 at any time. The State has no direct obligation to pay this debt, although the state agencies have an obligation to pay the rents under the leases that they enter into with the Authority and which rents are to be pledged to secure the bonds and notes.
The Authority is authorized to construct and improve office buildings necessary or convenient for the operation of any state agency. It must decide if a project is feasible. The Governor, however, can veto any project. If he does not and the costs are $100,000 or less, the Authority may proceed. However, if the costs are greater, the report proposing the project must be submitted to the Legislature. The Authority cannot proceed unless both the Senate and Assembly adopt resolutions of approval. Even if the Legislature has sanctioned the proposal, the President and the Speaker of the General Assembly must approve each lease made by a state agency with the Authority.
I
Separation of Powers
Justice Pashman has described in General Assembly v. Byrne, supra, the overriding concern of the Founding Fathers that the Legislature might arrogate unto itself undue power. This concern and a desire to facilitate the administration of government by having the executive, rather than the Legislature, handle the details involved in administering and executing the laws are the primary reasons for the separation of powers implicit in the Federal Constitution and expressly set forth in the State Constitution in Art. III, par. 1.
A violation of the constitutional separation of powers precept occurs when, as stated in General Assembly, thére is “unwarranted legislative interference with the executive branch and excessive legislative law-making power” so that the Legislature “can gravely impair the functions of the agencies charged with *414enforcing,” administering and executing the statutes. General Assembly v. Byrne, 90 N.J. at 385. Legislative interference can violate the goals of a statute. This is particularly so when the legislative veto overrides a central or essential component of the executive authority. Moreover, “[t]he Legislature cannot [lawfully] pass an act that allows it to violate the Constitution.” Id. at 391. Professor Bickel expressed a similar thought in his testimony before the Subcommittee on Separation of Powers of the Senate Committee of the Judiciary:
[T]he constitutional separation of powers is not ordained for the convenience of the separate branches of the Government, as they may from time to time conceive it, but is intended to insure observance of certain principles which the framers believed would conduce to effective and responsible Government consistent with the liberties of the people. Hence neither the Congress nor the President may choose to suspend these principles when convenient. [Congressional Hearings, September 15, 1967, at 247]
The New Jersey Building Authority Act cannot withstand these separation of power tests. The Authority is an agency in the executive branch of the government. No one has questioned the adequacy of the standards under which it is to approve a project to house another state agency or to determine the project’s financial feasibility. Yet, the Legislature has retained control over the heart of the Authority’s reason for being. It is the Authority, subject to the Chief Executive’s approval, that determines whether a project is feasible and should be effectuated. But still the project cannot move forward without the approval of each house of the Legislature. What could constitute greater legislative control over an executive department of government!
The majority contends that legislative approval of a project will constitute “a strong, if not compelling, basis for the Legislature to continue to appropriate sufficient money” throughout all future years, to pay the rent required under the leases. Ante at 403. It argues that the approval of a project and lease agreement “locks the Legislature, for all practical purposes, into making continued appropriations... . ” Ante at 404. It is one thing to appropriate dollars annually and quite another *415to bind one’s self ahead of time to make appropriations. Obviously, the Legislature that approves a project in 1982 does not control future Legislatures. This is particularly evident when Legislatures must appropriate funds each year to enable tenants to pay their rents throughout lease terms as long as 35 years. Legislatures are not bound as courts are by precedent; yet even the judiciary is not “locked in.” See, e.g., Schaad v. Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Ass’n, 72 N.J. 237 (1977), overruled in State v. Celmer, 80 N.J. 405, 418 (1979).
More importantly whether the Legislature exercises the discretion to finance or not to finance governmental operations cannot justify a legislative intrusion into the executive power. Stating the proposition demonstrates its inherent weakness. Legislative control over appropriation purse strings does not warrant violation of the constitutional separation of powers. Otherwise the Legislature could through this mechanism direct the operations of all executive functions. Neither the Legislature’s surrender of its appropriation authority, which is questionable to say the least, nor its exercise of that authority entitles the Legislature to assume a power in contravention of the Constitution. The contention that the Legislature’s appropriation power entitles it to share in the executive function of formulating and planning housing projects entrusted to the Authority is not sound.
II
Bicameralism and Legislative Delegation of Power
The Constitution vests the legislative power in a Senate and General Assembly. N.J. Const. (1947), Art. IV, § 1, par. 1. The 1966 Constitutional Convention rejected a move to change to a unicameral legislature because of the constraint that bicameralism imposes upon the exercise of legislative power. Our constitutional provision is modeled after the federal scheme, both serving the same purposes. It is pertinent, therefore, to note Judge Wilkey’s comments in Consumer Energy Council of *416America v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 673 F.2d 425, 464 (D.C.Cir.1982):
The overriding objective of bicameralism, then, is to constrain the exercise of the federal legislative power by making sure that the Legislature can act only where representatives of two different constituencies are in agreement.
See also The Federalist, No. 51 (J. Madison).
We have seen that either house of the Legislature can amend the Building Authority Act by vetoing projects approved by the executive branch of the government. Thus, one body may determine whether a duly enacted statute should be administered, this in defiance of the constitutional mandate that both the Senate and General Assembly must approve every bill. See N.J. Const. (1947), Art. V, § 1, par. 14(a).
As the Senate may not delegate its legislative power to the General Assembly, so, too, neither the Senate nor the General Assembly may delegate its legislative authority to a smaller body. It is obvious that the Senate could not delegate to a committee of its members the right to pass a bill. This can be done only by a majority of its members. Therefore, neither the Senate nor the General Assembly has the authority to delegate to its respective presiding officers the authority to approve each lease to be entered into between a state agency and the Authority. No standards or guidelines bind these legislative officers. Either could negate a proposed lease and doom to failure a project approved by the Authority, the Governor, and even the Legislature.
Springer v. Philippine Islands, 277 U.S. 189, 48 S.Ct. 480, 72 L.Ed. 845 (1928), has long been the leading opinion in this area of the law. There the Supreme Court struck down a statute vesting authority in the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippine Islands to vote government-owned stock in the Philippine National Bank, observing:
Legislative power, as distinguished from executive power, is the authority to make laws, but not to enforce them or appoint the agents charged with the duty of such enforcement. The latter are executive functions. It is unnecessary to *417enlarge further upon the general subject, since it has so recently received the full consideration of this court. Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52, 47 S.Ct. 21, 71 L.Ed. 160.
Not having the power of appointment, unless expressly granted or incidental to its powers, the legislature cannot engraft executive duties upon a legislative office, since that would be to usurp the power of appointment by indirection; though the case might be different if the additional duties were devolved upon an appointee of the executive. [Id. at 202, 48 S.Ct. at 482, 72 L.Ed. at 849]
Neither house of the Legislature may create effective legislation alone. Nor may it delegate essential executive or legislative duties to the Senate President or Speaker of the Assembly. The New Jersey Building Authority Act contravenes these principles.
Ill
Presentment Clause
Another important constitutional check on the legislative power is found in the Presentment Clause, N.J.Const. (1947), Art. V, § 1, par. 14(a). Every bill passed by both houses must be presented to the Governor. If he approves, it becomes law. If not, the Legislature may reconsider the matter and then, if two-thirds of each house votes for passage, the bill becomes law. The Presentment Clause serves two purposes. It protects the executive from an overreaching legislative power that could effectively thwart the executive in performing his constitutional charge of executing the laws. See The Federalist, No. 73 (A. Hamilton). The second purpose is to prevent hasty or imprudent legislation. It has also served as a means of expressing the policy of the chief executive, the only official elected statewide.
The legislative action under the Building Authority Act is essentially legislative in nature.1 Even if it is contended that *418when the Legislature disapproves a project, it acts as an administrative agency, much as that agency itself acts when it declines to approve a project, that would violate the separation of powers. When the Legislature approves a project, its action is more akin to acting in a legislative capacity. It need follow no standards or criteria, other than constitutional ones. However, both approval and disapproval by the Legislature involve the Senate and General Assembly in a legislative review mechanism. This mechanism can be utilized only in accordance with the constitutional scheme. That scheme requires conformance with the Presentment Clause. There is no other way in which the Legislature may act legislatively. See In re N. Y., Susquehanna & Western R.R. Co., 25 N.J. 343 (1957) (concurrent resolution may express opinion, but lacks operative effect of legislation).
It is no answer to say that the Governor had previously approved the project and therefore the Presentment Clause has not been violated. Otherwise, the Legislature could always seek proposals from the Governor and thereafter adopt them without presentment to the Governor. No one would seriously claim that such an adoption would constitute duly enacted legislation. The Constitution contemplates the Governor will act after the Legislature has completed its deliberations, not before. Legislative hearings might disclose facts or reasons that impel the executive to change his position. Sanction of a plan having prior gubernatorial approval and elimination of the presentment of the act after passage by the Legislature reverses the constitutional scheme of the legislative check and power placed in the executive—and without any valid reason. Cf. Justice Mountain’s comment in Vreeland v. Byrne, 72 N.J. 292, 304-05 (1977), in which he advocates literal compliance with constitutional provisions governing details of governmental administration. Neither the Governor nor the Legislature may choose to suspend constitutional procedures.
*419IV
Some recent judicial opinions that have carefully considered these problems of presentment, separation of powers and bicameralism have declared legislative attempts to circumvent these provisions invalid. See Consumer Energy Council of America v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 673 F.2d 425 (D.C.Cir. 1982);2 Chadha v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 634 F.2d 408 (9th Cir. 1980), cert. granted, 454 U.S. 812, 102 S.Ct. 87, 70 L.Ed.2d 80 (1981); Opinion of the Justices, 431 A.2d 783 (N.H.1981); State ex rel. Barker v. Manchin, 279 S.E.2d 622 (W.Va.1981); State v. A.L.I.V.E. Voluntary, 606 P.2d 769 (Alaska 1980).
The only recent decision of this Court which relates to this subject is Brown v. Heymann, 62 N.J. 1 (1972). However, that decision did not discuss the problems presented in this case. The issue in Brown was whether the Executive Reorganization Act *420of 1969 “so enhance[d] the executive power as to threaten the security against aggregated power which the separation-of-powers doctrine was designed to provide.” Id. at 10. The Court answered that proposition in the negative. The statute authorized the Governor to prepare a reorganization plan of executive departments and to submit each plan to the Legislature. If the Legislature did not pass a concurrent resolution opposing the plan, it would become effective. See N.J.S.A. 52:14C-7(c). It was observed that the Legislature could express only disapproval. No affirmative legislative action was needed to have the plan become law. This is to be differentiated from the Building Authority Act under which the Legislature must act affirmatively before the project is effective and presiding officers of each house must approve leases that are essential to the realization of a project.
I sympathize with what the Legislature is seeking to accomplish in reviewing actions of administrative agencies. However, it is not without recourse. The Legislature could, of course, express its views during rulemaking hearings under the Administrative Procedure Act. It has also been suggested that the Legislature could require that rules would not become effective for a period of thirty days so that the Legislature could, if it so desired, pass a statute within that time nullifying or modifying proposed regulations. See Watson, “Congress Steps Out: A Look at Congressional Control of the Executive,” 63 Calif.L.Rev. 983, 1060-61 (1975). It has also been proposed that the Legislature’s direction should perhaps be to do more reviewing of what the administrative agencies are doing and then rewriting the laws in light of their administration, rather than reshaping and redirecting the administration of its laws. I am certain there are many other legislative oversight mechanisms that will fulfill the Legislature’s desire that the laws be interpreted in accordance with its intent.
Though I believe those sections of the Building Authority Act relating to legislative concurrence in the Authority’s projects *421and approval of the leases by the presiding officers of each legislative house are invalid, I am of the opinion that the balance of the statute may stand. Paragraph 31 of the Act evidences a broad legislative intent to that effect:
If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which the judgment shall have been rendered.
I agree with the majority that the debt limitation clause, Art, VIII, § 2, par. 3, has not been violated, although this is a close question because of the State’s obligations under the leases.
I join in the judgment that the sale of the bonds in the principal amount of $135,000,000 under the New Jersey Building Authority Act, as modified, would not violate the New Jersey Constitution.
Justice CLIFFORD joins in this opinion.
CLIFFORD and SCHREIBER, JJ., concurring in the result.
For affirmance—Chief Justice WILENTZ and Justices PASHMAN, CLIFFORD, SCHREIBER, HANDLER, POLLOCK and O’HERN—6.
For reversal —None.

One commentator has stated: “Since the Constitution plainly requires presidential participation in the exercise of legislative power, a power must be classified as non-legislative to justify its exercise by Congress or one of its branches in a way other than that prescribed.” R. W. Ginanne, “The Control *418of Federal Administration By Congressional Resolutions and Committees,” 66 Harv. L. Rev. 569, 593 (1953).

Judge Wilkey’s opinion contains a comprehensive discussion of the Presentment Clause, bicameralism, and separation of powers. 673 F.2d at 461-78. He held that the provision authorizing either house of Congress to disapprove a regulation of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) under the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978, 15 U.S.C. §§ 3301-3342, was unconstitutional for several reasons. Congress could not create a device enabling it to control agency rulemaking; the Presentment Clause was evaded because the President had had no opportunity to exercise his right of veto; the constitutional requirement of bicameralism was violated because one house could affect the validity of the regulation; congressional expansion of its role to one of shared administration of the law contravened separation of powers; and the entire scheme adversely affected the constitutional system of checks and balances.
The majority, in considering this opinion, has isolated one point in Judge Wilkey’s discussion as crucial, that is, that the subject matter involved a “basic policy judgment.” The opinion is not so circumscribed. However, even that standard does not differentiate this case. Here the Authority is making basic policy decisions with respect to where a state governmental body should be located, the adequacy of the facilities, and the costs involved. Though these policy decisions are different from whether incremental pricing should apply to boiler fuel, both the Authority and FERC have been entrusted with basic policy decisions within their respective substantive spheres.