Where certain duties are imposed or specific powers are conferred upon a designated officer, the Legislature cannot withdraw them . . . nor confer them upon others nor abridge them or interfere with the officer's right to exercise them unless the Constitution expressly so provides. 12 A district court, of course, is one of these governing institutions. The Constitution provides for the election of district judges who are to preside over the district courts. Any exceptions to this arrangement need to be stated in the Constitution. Section 7 does contain an exception. But it has limits. Only when the elected district judge is absent, disabled, or disqualified may someone besides the elected judge conduct court proceedings. Following this principle, the Sheppard Court held the Legislature could not create an office with authority to take over the duties of the county attorney. 13 A similar case from the Texas Supreme Court is State v. Moore. 14 In Moore, the Court said: It must be presumed that the constitution, in selecting the depositaries of a given power, unless it be otherwise expressed, intended that the depositary should exercise an exclusive power, with which the legislature could not interfere by appointing some other officer to the exercise of the power. . . . That the constitution might empower the legislature to withdraw power from the hands in which the constitution placed it, and to confer the same upon an [sic] another officer or tribunal, cannot be questioned; but to enable the legislature to do so, the power must be given in express terms, and it cannot be implied. 15
Hill County v. Sheppard, 178 S.W.2d 261, 264 (Tex. 1944) (emphasis added, ellipsis in original). Id. 14 State v. Moore, 57 Tex. 307 (1882). 15 Id. at 314-15 (emphasis and ellipsis added). 12 13
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