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1 He is, as Delegate Cardin so well pointed out, the lawyer
for the State.
As Judge Henderson pointed out, his function is
largely judicial, quasi-judicial. It is the function
of the attorney general. His main function is to give
opinions on what he finds the law to be to any department
of the State, governor, legislature, as he finds the law,
not as the inquirer would like to have the law be.
If he is asked a question as to the constitutior-
ality of an act going to the legislature, whether by the
governor or by either branch of the legislature or any
individual legislator, he must, after proper research,
give the same answer. Therefore, I feel it is imperative
that the Attorney General be entirely independent, and
that is the way it has been set up in the present Consti-
tution. It is not in any one of the other three branches,
but it is in the separate article VI, recognizing that
the attorney general is a unique officer. And that is
! why, in my opinion, it has been separately set up.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Mason, you have about
a minute and a half to yield.