Alma Record

NULL AND VOID.

The Local Option Law So Declared by the Supreme Court.

The supreme court has unanimously declared the local option law unconstitutional. The ground upon which this decision is reached is very simple, viz: the law is a direct violation of article 4, section 20, of the constitution, although other points are touched upon incidentally.

The article of the constitution violated provides that no law shall embrace more than one object, which shall be embodied in its title. The local option law is entitled "An act to regulate the manufacture and sale of liquor," which is not at all what the law is for.

The court also says the law requires the county clerk to call a special election upon the petition of one fifth of the lawful voters of the county, but it does not provide a way by which the clerk may know whether the petitioners are lawful voters. Neither is there a provision that the petitions are to be preserved by the clerk, although they are the foundation for the suspension of the general law of the state.

The law also says the ballots shall be cast and counted and returned to the county clerk according to the law by which county officers are elected. This is a lame provision, and it is aggravated by the fact that there is no provision for a board of canvassers, nor for the promulgation of the result of a special election.

The opinion was written by Justice Champlin, and three fourths of it is devoted to the violated article of the constitution. The other defects might have been vital, but this one makes it certain that the law is totally collapsed.