People v. Sassovich

By the Court, Sanderson, J. The following points are made upon this appeal:

1. That the Act of the 4th of April, 1864 (Statutes of 1863-64, p. 497), by which the number of judicial districts was increased to fifteen is in conflict with the fifth section of the Sixth Article of the Constitution, and therefore null and void.

2. That admitting the Act in question to be constitutional, so far as the creation of the Fifteenth Judicial District is concerned, the Governor had no power, under the Constitution, to appoint and commission a Judge of the Court thereby created, as required and directed by the sixth section of said Act.

The rules by which Constitutions are to be construed when the validity of an Act of the Legislature is brought in question were elaborately considered by us in Bourland v. Hildreth, 26 Cal. 180-225, and therefore need not be specially considered in this place. It is well settled that every Act deliberately passed by the Legislature must be regarded by the # Courts as valid unless it is clearly and manifestly repugnant to some provision of the Constitution. The people must not be deprived, by judicial construction, of their prerogative right to declare, through the Legislature, what shall be the. rule in a given case upon the mere conjecture or suspicion that they have already declared their will upon that subject in the Constitution. Nothing short of a constitutional prohibition, so explicit and clear as to leave no reasonable doubt [483]upon the mind, can justify the Courts in declaring an Act of the Legislature null and void. If, in the presence of opposing reasons the judicial mind, guided by legal rules of construction, hesitates, the question is already decided and a conclusion is already reached.

The language of the Constitution which the present case presents for construction, is as follows :

“ Art. 6, Sec. 5. The State shall be divided by the Legislature of 1863 into fourteen judicial districts, subject to such alteration from time to time, by a two-thirds vote of all the members elected to both Houses, as the public good may require.” * * * *

It is claimed on the part of the appellant that the number of the districts is permanently fixed and established by the foregoing provision of the Constitution, and that the Legislature therefore has no power either to increase or diminish it.