The Problem with the Lieutenant Governor

Download or read book The Problem with the Lieutenant Governor written by Travis Lynch and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The separation of powers doctrine was designed to prevent one individual from both creating and executing the law. Currently, forty-three states utilize a lieutenant governor position within their executive branch of government. The primary purpose of the lieutenant governor is to ensure the continuity of the executive branch. However, some lieutenant governors simultaneously exercise legislative power as the president of the senate or members of senate committees. Little scholarly work and few state supreme courts have specifically addressed this issue. This Comment surveys the office of the lieutenant governor among the states within both the executive and the legislative branches. Instead of applying an unwieldy “one-size-fits-all” separation of powers test to each of the fifty states opposed to each state's needs, constitution, and case law, this Comment proposes three possible solutions for a state to remedy a separation of powers violation: 1) amend the state constitution, 2) strike down the statute as unconstitutional, or 3) remove the separation of powers clause from the state constitution.