Richard C. Hawkins against The Governor.
Petition for rule to show cause, why a mandamus should not issue.
The case of Taylor vs. The Governor, (ante p. 21,) does does not decide that a mandamus can issue to the Governor.
The Governor of the State is not amenable to the judiciary for the manner in which he performs, or for his failure to perform his legal or constitutional duties.
His acts, being political, must of course be politically examined in the manner pointed out by the Constitution.
The Constitution assigns to him no ministerial duties to be performed, nor can the law enjoin upon him any such duty.
The principle, that, where a specific duty is assigned by law, and individual rights depend upon the performance of that duty, the individual injured has a right to resort to the law for redress; applies only to such officers as have no legal or constitutional discretion left them. All the officers of the government, except the President of the United States, and the Executives of the different States, are liable to have their acts examined in a court of justice.
Whenever the heads or officers of a department are the political or confidential agents of the Executive, appointed merely to execute his will, it is clear that in such cases their acts are his acts—and whatever opinion may be entertained of the manner in which their discretion may be used, there is no power in the courts to compel that discretion.
But if the Governor had signed and sealed the commission of an officer, and delivered it to the Secretary of State to be attested and recorded, the duties of the Secretary being in that behalf purely ministerial, the court would, by mandamus, compel him to perform them.
Each department of the government has the right to judge of the Constitution for itself—but each is responsible for an abuse or usurpation of power, in the mode pointed out by the Constitution.
The Governor is placed under a double responsibility—that of the right of suffrage, and that of impeachment. He is answerable in no other way for hie official conduct, while he Continues in the exercise of his office.
All the duties imposed Upon the Executive by the Constitution, including the issuing of commissions, are strictly and exclusively political.
The Supreme Court therefore has no power to award a mandamus to the Governor to compel him to grant a commission.
This case was disposed of on the question of jurisdiction. It is therefore only necessary to state that it was a petition for a rule upon James S. Conway, Governor of the State, to show cause why a peremptory mandamus should not be awarded against him, commanding him to issue a commission to the petitioner, Richard C. Hawkins, as Commissioner of Public Buildings.
Cummins & Pike, for the application:
The first question in this case is, has this court the power to award a
