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336 So. 2d 156

Wallace v. Baker

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided July 16, 1976

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1976-07-16

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““Section 43 of our State Constitution prohibits the Executive branch from exercising either legislative or judicial powers. Section 72 of our Constitution specifically prohibits the payment out of the treasury of money ‘except upon appropriations made by law.’ Amendment 111, which states that it is the policy of the State ‘to foster and promote the education of its citizens,’ does not grant additional powers to the Executive. The power to appropriate is still legislative.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including State v. Estate of Yarbrough

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1976-07-16

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently November 2017

4 state decisions

2019761980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1

¶2Can the Governor, by executive order, appropriate public funds for education when the Legislature adjourns without passing an appropriation bill? We hold that he cannot, and affirm the trial court.

¶3Section 43 of our State Constitution prohibits the Executive branch from exercising either legislative or judicial powers. Section 72 of our Constitution specifically prohibits the payment out of the treasury of money "except upon appropriations made by law." Amendment 111, which states that it is the policy of the State "to foster and promote the education of its citizens," does not grant additional powers to the Executive. The power to appropriate is still legislative.

¶4Admittedly, the Legislature's inaction created an emergency, but under the facts of this case, the proper constitutional course for the Governor was for him to call a special session, which he did. The Legislature passed an appropriation bill for education, thereby alleviating the problem.

¶5We affirm the judgment of the trial court enjoining the enforcement of the executive order.

¶6AFFIRMED.

¶7HEFLIN, C.J., and JONES, SHORES and BEATTY, JJ., concur. *157

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