[Updated] This story today in the Indianapolis Star reports that Rep. Ed Mahern, D-Indianapolis, is proposing legislation to make the Clerk of the Courts an appointive office. According to the comments in the story, this may be an idea whose time has come:
David Remondini, counsel to Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard, said Shepard backs the change. "If the legislative and executive branches feel this is a good change for Indiana government, the chief justice supports this change and is willing to put his energy behind it," he said.Many of you may remember that the Clerk of the Courts was originally a constitutional office. Art. 7, Sec. 7 of the Constitution of 1851 provided that:"It ought to be an appointment," said Mahern, adding that he finds it strange to elect someone to the executive branch of government only to work for the judicial branch. Besides, he said, "nobody knows who these people are."
In the past, about the only publicity the clerk's office has gotten is bad publicity. * * *
Luke Messer, executive director of the Indiana Republican Party, said it may make sense to no longer elect what is "a ministerial sort of job." "It sounds to me like a pretty good idea," said Messer, R-Shelbyville. "And as a legislator, who knows? I may be a co-sponsor."
There shall be elected by the voters of the State, a Clerk of the Supreme Court, who shall hold his office four years, and whose duties shall be prescribed by law.There was also a state-wide elected Reporter of the Courts, a statutory office. This office was not established in the Constitution, but Art. 7, Sec. 6 authorized it:
The General Assembly shall provide, by law, for the speedy publication of the decisions of the Supreme Court, made under this Constitution; but no judge shall be allowed to report such decisions.This office of Clerk of the Courts has always been considered to be an office in the judicial branch of government, not the executive. (For more information on this, see the discussion in my paper on the separation of powers in Indiana.)
Article 7, Judiciary, was completely rewritten via a constitutional amendment ratified at the election of November 3, 1970. Sections 1 through 20 were replaced with new provisions. (Unfortunately bearing the same section numbers as the replaced language. This is a particular problem if you use the Burns edition of the Indiana Constitution. The West version contains notes such as "The 1970 amendment rewrote this section, which read as appearing in 1851 . . . ").
The law providing for the state-wide election and the powers and duties of the Clerk, orginally appearing in the 1852 Revised Statutes (2 RS 1852, ch. 2), appears with little change now at IC 33-15-1.
The statute providing for the state-wide election of the Reporter (codified at 33-15-8), as well as IC 33-15-9, relating to the reporter's duties, was repealed by PL 4-1983, SEC. 20, effective Jan. 15, 1985.
Thus, earlier changes that removed the Clerk as a constitutional office have left the option open for the General Assembly to now abolish this state-wide elected office.
Posted by Marcia Oddi at November 3, 2003 07:25 AM