PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE SENATE AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF SECTION 10 OF CHAPTER 5 OF THE GENERAL LAWS The Commonwealth of Massachusetts JOURNAL OF THE SENATE. At a General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, begun and holden at Boston on the first Wednesday, being the fourth day of January, in the year one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two, and the one hundred and forty-sixth of the independence of the United States of America, a quorum of the members of the Senate, elected for the term of two years at an election held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in the year 1920, assembled at eleven o'clock A.M., in the Senate Chamber, and were called to order by the President. Prayer was offered by the Chaplain. The President then addressed the Senate as follows: "The President extends greetings to the Honorable Senators as we gather here for our Second Annual Session. There seems to be no occasion for extended remarks on the part of the President. Therefore may I suggest that we proceed to the business before us as expeditiously as possible." Communications from the Honorable the Justices of the Supreme The following communication from the Honorable the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court, having been deposited with the Clerk on October 31, 1921, was read: To the Honorable the Senate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: The justices of the Supreme Judicial Court, having considered the questions in the order of May 27, 1921, copy whereof is hereto annexed, respectfully submit these answers: The Senate is required by c. 1, s. 2, art. VII of the Constitution to choose its own president, appoint its own officers, and determine its own rules of proceedings." Neither this nor any other provision of the Constitution by express words fixes the term for the president or for any of the other officers of the Senate. From the adopting of the Constitution until the year nineteen hundred and twenty, senators were elected annually for a term expiring on the day preceding the first Wednesday of the second January after the annual state election at which they were chosen. C. 1, s. 2, arts. I, II, III. Amendments, arts. X and XV. It follows from these provisions that the officers of the Senate could not serve as a constitutional right for longer than the constitutional life of the Senate itself. The clerk of the 587527 House of Representatives of the United States by old usage is said to continue in a new Congress. It was almost inevitable that the membership of the Senate would be altered more or less with every annual election. Each member, whether elected for the first time or re-elected, sat by virtue of a fresh election. The official life of the Senate as a legislative body was thus limited to a single year. The ratification and adoption of art. LXIV of the Amendments changed this. Biennial elections are thereby substituted for annual elections. The term of office of each senator is two years in place of one year as theretofore. The official life of the Senate as a legislative body is thereby lengthened to two years instead of being limited to the one year previously established. The provision in s. 3, art. LXIV of the Amendments that "The General Court shall assemble every year," does not break the continuity of the Senate as a legislative body. It simply assures two sessions of one legislative body. In this particular the two branches of the General Court now resemble the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, which although required by art. I, s. 4, of the Constitution to "assemble at least once in every year," is nevertheless a single continuous legislative body during the two years for which by s. 2 of the same article its members are chosen. To the first question we answer that the Constitution does not require that the officers of the Senate be elected for each annual session, but they may be elected to serve throughout the twoyear term of the General Court and until its dissolution. 66 The power conferred upon the Senate to 'appoint its own officers, and determine its own rules of proceedings," by implication grants authority to fix the terms of such officers for periods not exceeding its own official life. That whole subject is within the control of the Senate. To the second question the answer is that it is competent for the Senate by rule to limit the term of its officers to one year, or to provide that said term shall be coextensive with the period for which the Senate was elected. The election of officers of the Senate by the votes shown in the journal of the Senate, copy of which accompanies the order, under the constitutional provisions to which reference has been made, in the absence of any rule fixing the term, imports that the several officers shall serve during the pleasure of the Senate. Unless contrary action is taken by the Senate, they serve during the life of the Senate as a legislative body. The answer to the third question is that such officers will hold under the circumstances there stated for two years unless that term shall be shortened by vote of the Senate. For convenience in answering these questions, the official term of the members of the Senate has been designated as two years, although speaking with strict accuracy, under art. LXIV of the Amendments to the Constitution, it extends from "the first Wednesday in January succeeding their election" "to the first Wednesday in January in the third year following their election and until their successors are chosen and qualified." The official existence of a particular Senate, and in the absence of a vote of contrary tenor of its president and its officers, precisely corresponds to these words of the Amendment. The order submitting these questions was not transmitted to us until after the adjournment of the session of the General Court for 1921. Therefore the answers were not given precedence over other pressing work of the court but are returned before the reassembling of the Honorable Senate. ARTHUR P. RUGG. JOHN C. CROSBY. On motion of Mr. Wells, the communication was placed on file and ordered to be printed (Senate, No. 2). The following communication from the Honorable the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court, having been deposited with the Clerk on November 23, 1921, was read: To the Honorable the Senate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Justices of The justices of the Supreme Judicial Court respectfully submit Opinion of these answers to the questions propounded in the order of May Supreme 25,, 1921, copy whereof is hereto annexed. Judicial Amendment stitution of the United States. 1. The purpose of House Bill No. 1612, to which the questions Eighteenth refer, is set forth in its title in these words: "An Act to carry to the Coninto effect, so far as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is concerned, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States." One distinguishing characteristic of that bill is that, in several sections, it incorporates by reference laws made and to be made by the Congress of the United States and regulations made and to be made thereunder for the purpose of establishing offenses to be punished by fine or imprisonment or both, by prosecutions to be instituted in the courts of this Commonwealth. See §§ 1 (b), 3, 6, 34, 37 of the proposed chapter 138. It is attempted by these sections, and possibly by other sections, to make the substantive law of the Commonwealth in these particulars change automatically so as to conform to new enactments from time to time made by Congress and new regulations issued pursuant to their authority by subsidiary executive or administrative officers of the United States. It purports to create offenses and impose punishments therefor, not by definition and declaration, but by reference to what may hereafter be done in these particulars by the Congress of the United States and those by it authorized to establish regulations. We are of opinion that legislation of that nature_would be contrary to the Constitution of this Commonwealth. Legislative power is vested exclusively in the General Court except so far as modified by the initiative and referendum Amendment. It is a power which cannot be surrendered or delegated or performed by any other agency. The enactment of laws is one of the high prerogatives of a sovereign power. It would be destructive of fundamental conceptions of government through republican insti |