Louisiana Law Review Volume 48 | Number 2 Developments in the Law, 1986-1987: A Faculty Symposium November 1987 Louisiana Constitutional Law John Devlin Louisiana State University Law Center Repository Citation John Devlin, Louisiana Constitutional Law, 48 La. L. Rev. (1987) Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol48/iss2/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. LOUISIANA CONSTITUTIONAL LAW John Devlin* OF REVENUE ANTICIPATION NOTES, MINERAL RIGHTS AND MAXIMS OF CONSTITUTIONAL CONSTRUCTION In this bicentennial year of constitutional celebration and controversial judicial nominations, fundamental questions concerning how courts should go about the task of construing constitutions are much in the air. Such issues of theory and method are as salient, and often as difficult and controversial, when disputed provisions of a state constitution must be construed as they are in the federal context. In two "hard cases" from last term,' State Bond Commissioner v. All Taxpayers,2 and American Lung Association, Inc. v. State Mineral Board,3 the Louisiana Supreme Court wrestled with similar issues of interpre- tation of the 1974 Louisiana Constitution. In both cases, the consti- tutional provisions at issue operated to limit the otherwise plenary powers of the political branches of the state government. In neither case did the plain meaning of the provision's specific terms-"debt" in the former case, "sold" in the latter-necessarily apply to the particular facts at bar, nor in either case did the records of the 1973 constitutional con- vention indicate that the framers ever considered the specific issue pre- sented.