concluding that proposed amendments must have "one purpose, one design ” to satisfy the separate vote requirement contained in the state constitution
How later courts described this case
- concluding that proposed amendments must have "one purpose, one design ” to satisfy the separate vote requirement contained in the state constitution
- "It is the settled jurisprudence that counties and municipalities are creatures of the State, established for the purpose of providing effective government with functions, powers, duties and obligations delegated or imposed by the State and that there is nothing in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution or any other provision of the Constitution of the United States which would prohibit the State from making any change of such functions, powers and obligations."
- “Constitutional provisions are subject to the same rule of interpretation and construction as are applicable to other laws.”(citing Orleans Parish School Board v. Murphy, 156 La. 925, 101 So. 268; 11 American Jurisprudence 658, Constitutional Law, Section 49; 16 C.J.S. Constitutional Law, § 15, page 51.)
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
McCALEB, Judge
(concurring).
I agree that the challenge on Act No. 389 of 1946, which amended Article XIV of the Constitution by adding thereto a new section designated as Section 3(a), is not well founded. Since the Act has become part of the organic law by vote of the people, thé attack thereon is restricted to a determination of whether it has been legally adopted — for, if it was, any general clauses or other provisions of the Constitution with which it might conflict must yield as it is a special ordinance having reference solely to a plan of government for a particular parish.
The claim of invalidity relative to the adoption of the amendment is that it is violative of that portion of Article XXI, Section 1 of the Constitution, which provides that “When more than one amendment shall be submitted at the same election, they shall be so submitted as to enable the electors to vote on each amendment separately.”
This claim is not tenable. Unlike Graham v. Jones, 198 La. 507 , 3 So.2d 761 , where an attempt was made in one amendment to repeal twenty sections of the Constitution, amend and rewrite eight and add seventeen new ones, Act No. 389 of 1946 has but a single purpose and object — a plan for the government of a particular subdivision of the State. Indeed, the attack herein is on a parity with that in Hotard v. City of New Orleans, 213 La. 843 ,’ 35 So.2d 752 , which, in my opinion, controls the decision in this case.
The other assaults, i. e., that the amendment violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the Federal Constitution, cannot be considered in a suit brought by the State. These constitutional guarantees are for the protection of the person and property of the .individual who alone may demand fulfillment upon invasion.
I concur in the decree.