In Re Chapelle

WORKS, J.

Applicant petitions for admission to the bar. He has never been admitted to the bar in any jurisdiction. His application shows that he has engaged in the study of the law for fifteen years in Michigan, in Illinois, and in this state, and that he has read certain specified text-books upon various branches of the law. He applies for an admission without examination as to his qualifications and presents • certificates from trial judges and lawyers of this state to the effect that he is possessed of the learning in the law necessary to qualify him for admission. The certificst&s presented by the lawyers further show that they find him qualified after having carefully and diligently examined him as to his attainments.

Petitioner contends that this court enjoys the inherent power to admit him without examination. He also asserts that this inherent power is so firmly, completely, and irrevocably fixed that it is not subject to regulation by the legislature. He says that the matter of the admission of persons to the bar is so much a matter of judicial cognizance and is so far a matter for judicial determination that for the legislature to attempt to regulate it would be for the legislative branch of government to throw down that barrier which the constitutions of this country, including our own state constitution, have erected between that branch and the judicial branch. As a corollary to this assertion he makes the specific contention that the enactment of the legislature providing for a State Board of Bar Examiners and prescribing its functions is unconstitutional and void. This enactment is incorporated in various sections of the Code of Civil Procedure, which, so far as they are pertinent to the inquiry made necessary by petitioner’s position, read as follows:

[131]

“See. 276. Every applicant for admission . . . must present to the district court of appeal . . . satisfactory proof that for at least three years he has diligently and in good faith studied law in such manner, upon such subjects and under such conditions as the supreme court or the board of bar examiners shall have prescribed. Before being admitted he must produce a certificate showing that he has satisfactorily passed an examination conducted by the board of bar examiners. . . .

“See. 276a. The supreme court is empowered to appoint three competent attorneys to examine applicants for admission as attorneys and counselors at law. Such persons shall constitute the board of bar examiners. The said board shall hold examinations for admission to the bar of applicants who have regularly filed their applications. . . . Said board shall issue a certificate to each of said applicants who shall satisfactorily pass such examination. . . . Nothing herein shall be construed as preventing the district courts of appeal from further examining any applicant where deemed proper.