78 Md. 152 | Md. | 1893
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The counsel on both sides requested that the Court would hear this cause in advance of the time when it would have been reached in the regular course of the docket. The great public interests involved in a prompt decision of the questions presented by the record required that we should accede to the request. We will explain the manner in which the case arises. The appellants having been nominated by the Convention of the Republican Party in Frederick County as candidates for County Commissioners in said county, desired that their names should be placed on the official ballot to be prepared by the Supervisors of Election. The appellees were the Supervisors for Frederick County. Passing by some matters not material to be mentioned, we may state that the candidates filed in the Circuit Court for Frederick County a petition for a mandamus requiring the Supervisors to place their names on the official ballot. After answers the Court passed a pro forma order dismissing the petition.
The Act of 1892, chapter 283, relating to Frederick County provided as follows: ‘' There shall be five County Commissioners of said county, and those who were elected at the general election in November, A. D., 1891, shall hold their office for six years from the time of their said election, and the term for which County Commissioners of said county shall hereafter be elected shall be for six years.” This Act was passed on the assumption that the amendment to section first of Article seven submitted to the popular vote in November, 1891, is legally a part of the Constitution of the State. That amendment is in these words: “ County Commissioners shall be elected on general ticket of each county by the qualified voters of the several counties of the State, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November, commencing in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-one; their number in each county, their
The fourteenth Article of the Constitution also requires that the proposed amendment shall be submitted to the qualified voters of the State for adoption or rejection in a form to be prescribed by the General Assembly. This form was duly prescribed in the Act of 1890. It is also required, when two or more amendments are submitted to the voters, that each amendment shall be voted on separately. Several amendments were proposed by the Legislature of 1890. It is made the duty of the Governor to make publication of the bills which propose amendments. The votes cast for and against them must be returned to him, and if it shall appear to him that a majority has voted in favor of an amend
It has been said that the terms of this amendment direct an election to be held in November, 1891; whereas it was not proclaimed until December of the same year, and could not become a part of the Constitution,.
It wi]l be seen that we think that the amendment in question was validly adopted as a part of the Constitution, and that the Act of Assembly which we have mentioned is constitutional. A question was made whether there had been such a demand on the Supervisors and such a refusal by them as would entitle the appellants to a writ of mandamus. And there were other questions debated at the Bar of much interest and importance. We think it best to pass over them and rest our decision exclusively on the constitutional questions which we have been considering. They will put an end to this case, and the public interest requires that they should be settled.
Order affirmed.