Dade County Classroom Teachers Ass'n, Inc. v. Legislature

• Decision Date: 08 November 1972
• Docket Number: No. 42323,42323
• Citation: 269 So.2d 684
• Parties: 81 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2899, 69 Lab.Cas. P 52,954 DADE COUNTY CLASSROOM TEACHERS ASSOCIATION, INC., a Florida corporation not for profit, Petitioner, v. The LEGISLATURE of the State of Florida, Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 684

269 So.2d 684

81 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2899, 69 Lab.Cas. P 52,954

DADE COUNTY CLASSROOM TEACHERS ASSOCIATION, INC., a Florida corporation not for profit, Petitioner, v. The LEGISLATURE of the State of Florida, Respondent.

No. 42323.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Nov. 8, 1972.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 19, 1972.

Tobias Simon, Miami, for petitioner.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and Daniel S. Dearing, Chief Trial Counsel, Tallahassee, for respondent.

Daniel Draper, Jr., of Wicker, Smith, Pyszka, Blomqvist & Davant, Miami, for Dade County Educational Assn., amicus curiae.

John B. Mattingly, of Mattingly, Kennedy, Fogle & Watts, DeLand, for Florida School Boards Assn., Inc., amicus curiae.

Charles E. Miner, Jr., Tallahassee, for State of Florida Board of Education, amicus curiae.

Ralph A. Marsicano, Tampa, and Burton M. Michaels, Miami, for Florida League of Cities, Inc., amicus curiae.

A. L. Zwerdling, of Zwerdling, Maurer, Diggs & Papp, Detroit, Mich., and Hardee, Hamilton, Douglas & Sierra, Tampa, for American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, AFL--CIO, amicus curiae.

ROBERTS, Chief Justice.

This cause is before the Court in original mandamus proceedings filed by the Dade County Classroom Teachers' Association, Inc., in an attempt to compel the Legislature of the State of Florida to enact standards or guidelines regulating the right of collective bargaining by public employees of this state, as guaranteed by Section 6, Article I, 1968 Constitution of Florida, F.S.A. The petition for the constitutional writ was filed as a class action on behalf of the 7,500 classroom teachers employed by the District School Board of Dade County and on behalf of all the public employees of this state--its counties, municipalities, school districts, and all other governmental agencies.

The petition complains of inaction on the part of the Legislature through three legislative sessions following the decision of this Court in Dade County Classroom Teachers' Association v. Ryan, 225 So.2d 903 (Fla.1969), in which this Court made clear that, except for the right to strike, our State Constitution guarantees to public employees the same rights of collective bargaining as are granted to private employees. We emphasized, however, that appropriate legislation setting out standards and guidelines and otherwise regulating 'the sensitive area of labor relations between public employees and public employer' should be adopted by the Legislature. We noted particularly that:

'In the sensitive area of labor relations between public employees and public employer, it is requisite that the Legislature enact appropriate legislation setting out standards and guidelines and otherwise regulate the subject within the limits of said Section 6. A delicate balance must be struck in order that there be no denial of the guaranteed right of public employees to bargain collectively with public employers without, however, in any way trenching upon the prohibition against public employees striking either directly or indirectly or using coercive or intimidating tactics in the collective bargaining process.'

As we have previously held in Ryan, supra, with the exception of the right to strike, public employees do have the same right of collective bargaining as are granted private employees by Section 6 of the Declaration of Rights, Florida Constitution, which explicitly provides, as follows:

'The right of persons to work shall not kbe denied or abridged on account of membership or non-membership in any labor union or labor organization. The right of employees, by and through a labor organization, to bargain collectively shall not be denied or abridged. Public employees shall not have the right to strike.'

The petition for the writ must, of course, be denied. Florida's Constitution, like those of most other states, divides the state's sovereign powers into three co-ordinate branches--legislative, executive and judicial--and prohibits a person belonging to one of such branches from exercising any powers 'appertaining to either of the other branches unless expressly provided herein.' Section 3, Article II, 1968 Constitution. And it is too well settled to need any citation of authority that the judiciary cannot compel the Legislature to exercise a purely legislative prerogative. This Court has been diligent in maintaining and preserving the doctrine of separation of powers mandated by our Constitution. See Pepper v. Pepper, 66 So.2d 280, 284 (Fla.1953); Brewer v. Gray, 86 So.2d 799, 803 (Fla.1956). Accord: City of Miami Beach v. Kaiser, 213 So.2d 449, 453 (3 DCA Fla.1968), in which the Court summarized the separation-of-powers rule as follows:

'The courts have power to invalidate legislative enactments, but with certain exceptions not necessary to enumerate here, may not control or direct legislation, under our doctrine of separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government. 8 Fla.Jur., Courts § 45; 14 Am.Jur., Courts § 202.'

We think it is appropriate to observe here that one of the exceptions to the separation-of-powers doctrine is in the area of constitutionally guaranteed or protected rights. The judiciary is in a lofty sense the guardian of the law of the land and the Constitution is the highest law. A constitution would be a meaningless instrument without some responsible agency of government having authority to enforce it. As Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes once stated,

'We are under a constitution, but the constitution is what the judges say it, is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our liberty and of our property under the constitution.'

When the people have spoken through their organic law concerning their basic rights, it is primarily the duty of the legislative body to provide the ways and means of enforcing such rights; however, in the absence of appropriate legislative action, it is the responsibility of the courts to do so.

Where people in a constitution or charter vote themselves a governmental benefit or privilege, they the people in whom the power of government is finally reposed, have the right to have their constitutional rights enforced. In the very early opinion of McCulloch v. State of Maryland et al., 4 Wheat. (17 U.S.) 316, 4 L.Ed. 579, the great Chief Justice John Marshall profoundly stated:

'The government of the Union, then, . . . is, emphatically, and truly, a government of the people. In form and in substance it emanates from them. It powers are granted by...