|
We are on section 10, terms in office of
incumbents. Delegate Byrnes completed his
question.
Is there any other question on section 10,
terms of office of incumbents?
The Chair, hearing none, —
It is nice to be sociable, but we have to
keep the talk clown under a roar.
Delegate Bennett.
DELEGATE BENNETT: May I revert
a minute to section 8 regarding redistrict-
ing and refer, if I may, to Delegate Gal-
lagher's memorandum which, I think, is a
very useful memorandum, if I may ad-
dress a question to Delegate Gallagher. Is
it your suggestion, Delegate Gallagher,
that we undertake to do something about
alleviating the pressure on the General As-
sembly to adopt the so-called official fig-
ures?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Dele-
gate Gallagher, do you yield. This is di-
rect to Delegate Hardwicke, but I guess we
can break the rule a little.
Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: I will be
unusually brief, Mr. President.
The purpose of the memorandum is to
show the deviation from the mean for each
house seat in I960 and in 1970, assuming
one hundred forty-two seats in both I960
and 1970. We are developing what the
deviations would be in 1970 using one
hundred twenty seats and using the 1960
population.
Naturally, the entire thrust of this mem-
orandum is an argument for the support
of the Committee of the Whole's action,
and I will not debate that now since that
will be up later.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): All
right.
We have completed our questions on sec-
tion 10, and we will go to section 11, lieu-
tenant governor. That was one section that
I could interpret immediately when I read
it.
Section 12, any questions on section 12?
Delegate Chabot.
DELEGATE CHABOT: Article 2, sec-
tion 7, also gives the legislature some broad
powers regarding impeachment. Is there
any intention to continue these powers?
DELEGATE HARDWICKE: In other
words, your question is whether there
|
should be a postponement of the impeach-
ment powers, Delegate Chabot?
DELEGATE CHABOT: No. Not wheth-
er there should be a postponement, but one
of these provisions of the current Consti-
tution that is being continued by section 12
also gives the legislature power of im-
peachment. It is in our green copy of the
present Constitution. It is on page 14
which would mean that if that section
continues and we have new impeachment
procedures for a while, we may have sev-
eral different methods. Was there any in-
tention to do this?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Dele-
gate Chabot, in answer to your question,
there was no such intention, and if we
leave this transitional provision just as it
is, it is my guess that the court would
interpret this section 12 as control with
regard to the incumbent governor over any
contrary provision if the new constitution.
I do not think it is a matter of any crucial
importance.
It was inadvertent, but my belief is that
the incumbent governor would be im-
peached pursuant to section 7 of our con-
stitution because the more specific pro-
vision controls the general in case of con-
flict. It is a good question.
Delegate Chabot, are you making in-
nuiry concerning whether there should be
further clarification of this?
DELEGATE CHABOT: Yes, to make
sure that the Committee of the Whole has
it before it, so that if it feels that there
is a problem, the matter is finally decided
by a decision and not by inadvertence. I
assume that the current governor will take
note of the difficulties.
DELEGATE HARDWICKE: It is our
intention that the prior Constitution will
control with regard to the incumbent gov-
ernor, not withstanding anything in the
present constitution, albeit, it was slightly
inadvertent.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding): Any
further questions on section 12?
(There was no response.)
Section 13?
If there are no questions, we will go to
section 14.
The Chair hearing no questions, section
15.
The Chair hearing no questions, we will
proceed to the judicial branch, section 16,
judicial power.
|
