Dan B. SHIELDS, Plaintiff, v. Lamont F. TORONTO, Secretary of State of the State of Utah, Defendant.
No. 10202.
Supreme Court of Utah.
Oct. 15, 1964.
395 P.2d 829
Other points on appeal have been considered and we have found no error which would justify reversal of the conviction.
Affirmed. No costs awarded.
HENRIOD, C. J., and McDONOUGH, CALLISTER and WADE, JJ., concur.
A. Pratt Kesler, Atty. Gen., Salt Lake City, for defendant.
CROCKETT, Justice.
On July 30, 1964, the plaintiff filed in this court a complaint challenging the right of Ernest H. Dean, Democratic candidate for Governor; and of G. Douglas Taylor, Republican, and Clyde L. Miller, Democrat, candidates for Secretary of State, to run to become the nominees for those offices for their respective parties in the primary election to be held on August 11, 1964.
In view of the urgency of time, the matter was set specially for hearing on Monday, August 3, when the court heard oral arguments and received written memoranda of counsel on both sides; and on August 4, decided the case by minute entry, dismissing the complaint and allowing the candidates to run for the offices above stated.
In the primary election, Mr. Dean was eliminated as a candidate for the governorship, but Mr. Taylor and Mr. Miller were successful in gaining the nomination for Secretary of State for their respective parties.
The basis of the complaint is that these candidates had all been members of the 1963 legislature which had enacted a general salary increase bill which had raised the salaries of all state officers including those of governor and secretary of state.1 It is contended that they were therefore rendered ineligible to seek these offices because of the provisions of
“No member of the Legislature, during the term for which he was elected, shall be appointed or elected to any civil office of profit under this State, which shall have been created, or the emoluments of which shall have been increased, during the term for which he was elected.”
The obvious purpose of
Turning to the particulars of the provision under discussion, it will be noted that the prohibition is to an office which “shall have been created, or the emoluments of which shall have been increased” during the legislator‘s term. The emphasized words so used together give character to each other.7 in that light they seem to indicate plainly the setting up of some specific situation in state government by the creation of some office or so increasing a salary as to fit into some ulterior scheme whereby the legislator could improperly enrich himself at the expense of the public treasury.8
The important fact here is that the salary increases involved could not by any stretch of the imagination be regarded as partaking of the impropriety just referred to. There are two significant points which emphasize the correctness of this conclusion. In the first place, the raises given were not directed toward the creation of, nor to the increase of emoluments of any particular office, but were part of a general salary overhaul covering 74 executive officers and judges of the state. These salaries had previously been set at various times and in various sections of our statutes. The 1963 Act referred to was not primarily a salary increase bill, but its main purpose was to repeal all of the separate acts9 and to consolidate in one act the salaries of all of those offices in order to classify and bring about some uniformity and correlation among them. And second, the comparatively small increases amounting to about 5% of the remuneration of the offices in question were merely incidental to the main purpose. The secretary of state was raised from $10,500 to $11,000. While the raise for the governor was somewhat more, from $13,200 to $15,000, when the furnished residence, maintenance and other perquisites of the office are considered, the raise was just about the same percentage-wise. These relatively small increases, of that character, should properly be regarded as just what they were, a moderate cost of living adjustment on an across-the-board basis in keeping with the steadily rising costs of living.10 Accordingly, it can be
The absence of any improper machinations being practiced here is rendered even plainer by the fact that all that has been done has had full exposure to public view, and that these candidates have had full exposure to the elective process. Months before this suit was filed they had announced their candidacies for office. They had to run before and obtain the approval of the conventions of their respective parties. They were obliged to run in the public primaries against formidable opponents; and must face candidates of the opposing party in the general election. All of this with the public fully aware of all of the circumstances so they are free to approve or disapprove what the candidates have done.11
So important that it cannot be ignored, but must be considered in the composite picture, is the effect the plaintiffs contended for application of this Constitutional provision would have upon the fundamental rights of citizens and upon the over-all functioning of our democratic system of government. The foundation and structure which give it life depend upon participation of the citizenry in all aspects of its operation. On patriotic occasions we hear a great deal of oratory declaiming how precious is the right and how essential is the duty to vote for the candidate of one‘s choice. The emphasis is placed on the first clause — the right to vote;12 and the second clause — for the candidate of one‘s choice,
The impracticality of the literal application urged by the plaintiff is emphasized by considering what would happen to the legislature itself. Since our Constitution was originally adopted, the people have twice amended it to allow the legislature to raise their own salaries; and have twice amended it making changes in regard to the fixing of salaries of other constitutional officers.16 It must be assumed that these later amendments were made in an awareness of the existence of
In the several cases which have come to our attention dealing with such a Constitutional provision and a generally similar fact situation where there was no indication of wrongful conduct, the courts have quite uniformly arrived at the fair and practical result of allowing the candidate to run even though he had been a member of the legislature which had provided some increase in income to the office he sought.17 In the case of State ex rel. Grigsby v. Ostroot, 18 where the Constitutional history was somewhat different but generally analogous to our own, the South Dakota Supreme Court reasoned along the lines above set forth: That if the provision were so strictly and literally applied it would prevent even the legislators who had raised their own salaries from succeeding themselves and stated:
“It is not reasonable to believe that it was intended that after giving the legislature power to fix the salary of its members it was further intended that by increasing the salary of its members * * * it thereby rendered every member of that legislature ineligible to seek re-election.”
The court declared the candidate for governor eligible to seek the office primarily on the ground that the later Constitutional amendments were intended to be effective and not to be nullified by a rigid and unrealistic application of the prior existing Constitutional provision similar to our own.
This problem also has a bearing on another practical aspect of state government.
The foregoing discussion points up the danger in yielding to the temptation to adopt literal applications of a single proposition of law without regard to whether it will result in injustice and without giving due consideration to other rights that may be involved. But eagerness for easy solutions to complex problems often leads to error and injustice. More mature reflection dictates the propriety of weighing the claimed rights against all others that may be affected and seeking to balance and harmonize them in such way as to best serve the purpose of according fair and just treatment to all concerned.
The principle that rights cannot be regarded as isolated and absolute is rendered more clear by reflecting on some fundamental ones: The first declared right, to life itself, is limited by various conditions prescribed by other provisions of law, including the duty, under given circumstances, to give one‘s life for his country. Another good example is that of the oft vaunted freedom of speech. Neither is it absolute and uncontrolled. One may not with impunity make statements which constitute slander, or perjury, or treason. Nor does one have “the right to falsely yell fire in a crowded theater.”19 In fact the rights to all of the basic liberties are limited by the obligation to accord the same liberties to others. To recognize these limitations and to refuse to apply the letter of any one single provision of law in a rigid and unreasoning way, where other important rights will be overridden, is neither to destroy the law, nor to ignore it. But this would tend to be the result from making the law an unthinking monster which goes blindly along working injustice and crushing individuals or their rights in its path. The true spirit of the law is best served and honored by considering and applying the whole Constitution to the situation con-
Upon the basis of our analysis of the total picture and for the reasons hereinabove set forth, we have drawn the following conclusions: That
On the other hand, if the Constitutional provision in question is not given a rigid and literal application to the situation here to which it was never intended to apply, the evil effects just recited are avoided. There is no groundless and unreasoning deprivation of rights of citizenship, but they are assured as they should be; and no injustice is done. This is accomplished without in any way sacrificing the purpose of the Constitutional provision and harmonizes with the general purpose of permitting the democratic processes of government to operate as was intended.
For the reasons herein set forth it is our opinion that under the particular facts here existing plaintiff has shown no sufficient reason to deprive these candidates of their Constitutional rights to run for public office and that the complaint should be dismissed. No costs awarded. All emphasis ours.
CALLISTER and WADE, JJ., concur.
McDONOUGH, J., concurs in the result.
HENRIOD, Chief Justice (dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
If ever a case were arrived at by judicial and rhetorical prestidigitation, this is that case, which in substance and effect concludes that this Court may determine the eligibility of candidates for office; and that if the Constitution says otherwise, — junk the Constitution. It simply is a thesis to the effect that the judiciary may be quite oblivious to Constitutional sanction or interdiction. The portent of such a conclusion results in lacrimonious lament, in the light of our cherished concepts about separation of powers and reverence for Constitutional prerogatives or inhibitions. The disarming platitudes of the main opinion do not make our Constitution shine the more brightly, but without logic or satisfactory explanation, and by judicial fiat, dims it.
After this case, anyone should be eligible to run for anything if he violates the Constitution a little but not too much.
After this case, anyone who aspires to public office may be eligible to run if he simply throws his hat in the ring and spends some money which the main opinion seems to think he should not have to lose. This is not very comforting to the other fellow who really is eligible but may not have as much money to spend, but nonetheless loses whatever he spends.
After this case, a little increase in the emoluments of office will not affect one‘s eligibility, but a big increase apparently would. The Constitution does not say this, but says just the opposite. Nowhere in that erstwhile divinely inspired document can one find any language that deifies a 5% increase but damns a 50% raise. To reason that just a little “across-the-board” raise is not actually a raise at all not only strains one‘s credulity, but suggests that a little pregnancy conveniently but temporarily may be acceptable.
There is nothing in the Constitutional language that suggests any such arithmetic formula, and the court can produce no slide-rule, rubber or otherwise, that justifiably can say a 5% increase in salary is not an increase in emoluments of the office, but that a 50% increase would be. Such a conclusion makes one suspicion the gratuity of the main opinion that the judicial system “does not function by casting reason aside and clinging slavishly to a literal application of one single provision of law to the exclusion of all others.” If the Constitution says one cannot be a candidate if he is a member of the legislature that increases the emoluments of the office he later seeks, there is no judicial yardstick that can justify the position that a little increase in emolument is nice, but a bigger
The main opinion says the Constitutional provision is to protect against dishonest legislators. This is an inanity that is predicated on the assumption that a crooked legislator who seeks office hoping to enjoy a 5% increase in its emoluments, must not be condemned by this court, as a fact finder, but that the haloed one with character references addressed to this court, is immune from the Constitution and can aspire to any office he seeks. In my opinion, this is a non sequitur which this high court has neither the pleasure or luxury to indulge.
The Constitution does not exempt one where a 1% increase in emolument is involved, nor one with a 10% increase, nor a 100% increase, nor “an across-the-board” increase. It does not say it favors the “little” increase but not the “big” one. Yet this court says it does without resort to any lexicographal sense or meaning.
The main opinion‘s unwarranted statement that “The fact that some members of the legislature aspired to the named offices is merely coincidental,” is so naive as to merit no analysis, discussion or attempt at answer. It is like saying that if one could have prevented the baby from drowning in the bathtub, its death would be “merely coincidental.” In one fell swoop, the amazing pronouncement of the majority says the Constitution means nothing; that it is “merely coincidental,” and that the candidate is eligible if morally he is in good standing, — otherwise not.
I have read the main opinion over and over and inescapably can conclude nothing else except to learn that the court in this case loves everyone, except those it does not love, and that the clear expressions in the Constitution cannot interfere with such a noble, paternalistic philosophy.
