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DELEGATE BOYLES: May 1 suggest
that the two sections be made the same,
that the qualified voter be put in both.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: I think the Com-
mittee on Style and Arrangement can do
that.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: Chairman Mor-
gan, in your recommendation in the last
sentence where it states that the attorney
general shall upon his request give his
opinion on any legal matter in the General
Assembly, is that provision in the existing
Constitution ?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: It is.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: Are you famil-
iar with the effect that courts give to those
legal opinions with respect to legislation
passed by the General Assembly, where if
the attorney general gives an interpretation
of a particular law that has been enacted
and that opinion constitutes the official in-
terpretation which the courts give credence
to unless the law itself is reversed by the
General Assembly at succeeding sessions.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: What is your
question?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: I was asking
whether you were familiar with that inter-
pretation ?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: Well, I think an
attorney general's opinion is certainly en-
titled to great weight.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: Do you consider
that with these powers that you are giving
the attorney general's office, that the at-
torney general's office if it is approved by
this Committee and by the people at large,
will constitute a fourth arm of the govern-
ment?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: As a matter of
fact, under the Constitution, there are only
three arms of the government, the legisla-
tive, executive and judicial. The attorney
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general, as the Committee pointed out in its
previous report which was discussed last
week really does not fit particularly into
any particular branch. In advising the Gen-
eral Assembly, he is performing really a
legislative function; in advising the gover-
nor in the parlance of the executive branch
he is performing: an executive function. In
some respects, he also performs a judicial
function. He may give advice where there
is a dispute in the judicial branch of the
government. So he really does not fit into
any particular branch of the government.
Now, 1 suppose you can say that he is,
in effect, a fourth branch, except that I do
not think a fourth branch of the government
is known to American government.
THE CHAIRMAN: Arc there any further
questions ?
Delegate Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: Well, I a.i>ree
with you, these are powers delegated once
again to the people —
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gleason,
this is not time for debate, only time for
clarification.
DELEGATE GLEASON: Mr. Chairman,
I am asking a question if you will permit
me.
THE CHAIRMAN: You may.
DELEGATE GLEASON: To the extent
that we take an executive power and a leg-
islative power and a judicial power away
from one of the three branches of govern-
ment and give it to another, whatever you
want to call it, it is a delegation of that
power. Therefore, I am asking again if
this does not really constitute a fourth
branch of government. If it does, when we
get to the Committee Recommendation SR
& P-2 where they specifically state that the
legislative, executive and judicial powers
of government shall be forever separate
and distinct, should we not amend that sec-
tion to include the attorney general's office?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: I really do not
think that is necessary.
The attorney general, while he does have
executive powers, also has powers to advise
the General Assembly and also to advise in
some respects the judiciary but he docs not
except in one respect carry out any execu-
tive programs. At the present time, he has
jurisdiction over the consumer protection
program and the security program of the
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