32 P. 1130 | Idaho | 1893
This is an application made by the plaintiff for a writ of mandate to compel the defendant, as treasurer of Bingham county, to pay over to the treasurer of Bannock county certain school money which is admitted to be in the hands of the defendant, as treasurer of Bingham county, and which, plaintiff claims, has been apportioned to certain school districts in Bannock county. The defendant denies the existence of Bannock county. The plaintiff contends that Bannock county was created by an act of the second legislature of Idaho, entitled “An act to create and organize the county of Bannock; to fix the county seat of said county; to provide for
The first point is that section 4 of said act provides that the governor, by and with the consent of the Senate, shall appoint the officers of said Bannock county. It is contended that said section 4 of said act is special legislation) and in conflict with the following provisions of section 19, article 3, of the constitution, to wit: “The legislature shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following cases, that is to say: .... Regulating county business, or the election of county or township officers; .... creating offices, or prescribing the powers and duties of officers, in counties, cities, townships, election districts, or school districts, except as in this constitution otherwise provided.” The act in question does not regulate county business, nor does it regulate the election of county or township officers, nor create any officers in addition to those prescribed by the constitution, and designated as “county officers,” nor does it prescribe the powers and duties of county officers. The constitution does not prohibit the creation of new counties by the legislature. The power of the legislature to create new counties is recognized by sections 3 and 4 of article 18 of the constitution. Section 6, article 18, of the constitution, pro
The second contention is that said act fails to provide Bannock county with any representation in the lower house of the legislature. Said act is not an apportionment act, and neither grants nor refuses representation to Bannock county. By the provisions of article 19 of the constitution, the state was divided into senatorial and representative districts, and by the provisions of section 4, article 3, of the constitution, the legislature may redistrict the state, and reapportion the legislative representation of the state, whenever it may deem it advisable to do so. The legislature has made no apportionment since that made by the provisions of said article 19 of the constitution. The constitutional apportionment was made on the basis ■of the votes cast for delegate to Congress at the election next preceding the adoption of the constitution. The basis of representation was the voting population. Electors, alone, are represented. A given number in one county exercises the same political power as a like- number in any other. Some departure, however, is made from said basis of representation by the proviso of section 4, -article 3, of the constitution, which provides that each county shall have at least one representative, in all future apportionments. But this does not change the
The third contention of defendant is that said act segregates the eleventh senatorial district, and is void for that reason. In our view of the case, said act does not segregate the eleventh senatorial district. The tenth senatorial district was composed of Bingham county as it existed at the date of the constitu
We hold the act creating the county of Bannock to be constitutional and valid. The prayer of the plaintiff is granted, and the writ will issue as prayed for in the petition, costs in favor of the plaintiff.