Christian v. State
| Decision Date | 07 February 1911 |
| Parties | CHRISTIAN v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied May 5, 1911.
Appeal from City Court of Andalusia; R. H. Jones, Judge.
Jake Christian was convicted of crime, and he appeals. Affirmed.
Albritton & Albritton, for appellant.
Robert C. Brickell, Atty. Gen., for the State.
In Ex parte O'Neal, 154 Ala. 237, 45 So. 712, the act establishing the city court of Andalusia was sustained against an attack which alleged that constitutional requirements as to notice had not been complied with. In the case at hand the attack is renewed; the contention being that notice of the act was defective in a respect not heretofore urged. The notice as it appears at page 630 of volume 1, H J. 1907, was that the bill would provide, among other things "for the election of the officers thereof." The act passed in pursuance of this notice provided for the election of a judge and a solicitor by the qualified electors of the county at the next general election. Meantime the vacancies in these offices created by the passage of the act were to be filled by the Governor's appointment. It was further provided that the clerk of the circuit court of Covington should be ex officio clerk of the city court. It is urged that the notice was not in compliance with Const. 1901, § 106, and fails to state the substance of the proposed law, because it makes no mention of the fact that the Governor was to fill the offices of judge and solicitor until the next general election, or that the clerk of the circuit court of Covington was to be ex officio clerk of the proposed city court. The act provides that an elective clerk shall be ex officio clerk of the court created, and makes the same provisions for filling vacancies in the offices of judge and solicitor that is made by the general statute in case of vacancies in elective offices. This section of the Constitution has destroyed all initiative in the Legislature in respect to those subjects of legislation which are required to be advertised. A narrow and literal construction would destroy also, all power of amendment, so that the Legislature would be required to accept every such bill in the exact terms of its proposal. The Constitution does not proceed upon the theory that all the details of every proposed law should be worked out in advance and without the aid of legislative wisdom. It requires only that the local public shall be advised of the substance of the proposed law, of its characteristic and essential provisions, of its most important features. And this court has so held in a number of cases. Its language has been that the Constitution is complied with if the notice contains a fair compendium or abstract of the act in all its essential features. It has been said that the Constitution does not interfere...
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State v. Clements
...have the opportunity to oppose it. Alford v. Hicks, 142 Ala. 355, 38 So. 752; State v. Allen, 219 Ala. 590, 123 So. 36; Christian v. State, 171 Ala. 52, 54 So. 1001. such to be its purpose, we inquire who are those affected whose interest or inclination may oppose the enactment. Naturally i......
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State v. Dillard
... ... in which the act was declared void the provisions of the ... statute or the recitals of the notice or the publication ... thereof was entirely different from the case made on this ... [72 So. 59] ... appeal. What was said in the case of Christian v ... State, 171 Ala. 52, 54, 54 So. 1001, as to the validity ... of another local act passed for the same county (Covington), ... as to the petition of another court of such county, and as to ... filling vacancies in the offices of such court, is both apt ... and conclusive in this case. It ... ...
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Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Authority v. Hoadley, BIRMINGHAM-JEFFERSON
...law, or an abstract or compendium thereof, such as would give the people affected fair information of what the law is. Christian v. State, 171 Ala. 52, 54 So. 1001; Wallace v. Jefferson County Board of Revenue, 140 Ala. 491, 37 So. 321. It is only such departure from the 'substance' as publ......
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State ex rel. Wilkinson v. Allen
...213 Ala. 665, 106 So. 170; James v. State, 21 Ala. App. 295, 107 So. 727; McGehee v. State, 199 Ala. 287, 74 So. 374; Christian v. State, 171 Ala. 52, 54 So. 1001; Law v. State, 142 Ala. 62, 38 So. 798, merely to the sufficiency of the published notice, as to whether such notice contains a ......