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Director of the Office of State Lands & Investments v. Merbanco6/6/2003
o. 1997); NJC v. State, 913 P.2d 435 (Wyo. 1996). In fact, we are duty bound to uphold statutes where possible and resolve all doubts in favor of constitutionality. Campbell v. State, 999 P.2d 649 (Wyo. 2000); Frantz v. Campbell County Memorial Hospital, 932 P.2d 750 (Wyo. 1997). The challengers present a facial challenge, which is "the most difficult challenge to mount successfully, since the challenger must establish that no set of circumstances exists under which the Act would be valid." United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 745 (1987).
In construing our constitution, we follow essentially the same rules as those governing the construction of a statute. The fundamental purpose of those rules of construction is to ascertain the intent of the framers. Geringer v. Bebout, 10 P.3d 514, 521 (Wyo. 2000); Zancanelli v. Central Coal & Coke Co., 25 Wyo. 511, 173 P. 981, 991 (1918). "We are charged with discerning the intent of the Constitutional Convention, and we look first to the plain and unambiguous language to discern that intent." Geringer, 953 P.2d at 843.
Looking to the plain language used by the framers with regard to the state's authority over lands granted to it for educational purposes, we find the language uncertain in meaning. Although Article 18, Section 1 of the Wyoming Constitution states that all such lands shall be "disposed of only at public auction," it also contains terms typically applicable to a sale, such as a minimum price per acre and a provision for "purchase" by a settler of land on which he had settled at the time the constitution was adopted. Restricting our analysis to that section, we might conclude the framers contemplated a sale as the only method of authorized "disposal" of school lands and such sale must occur at a public auction. Proceeding to Section 3 of that article, however, we see the framers granted very broad authority to the board over much more than simple sales of school lands by providing the board shall direct, control, lease, and dispose of the lands. That language connotes an intent to allow the board flexibility to manage the school lands while they remain in state ownership. Section 3 goes on to provide the board's authority is "subject to the further limitations that the sale of all lands shall be at public auction" (emphasis added) and "at such minimum prices (not less than the minimum fixed by congress) as to realize the largest possible proceeds." The framers' choice of different language in this section, as well as the inference in Section 1 that the disposal they contemplated was a sale, creates an unavoidable ambiguity with regard to whether the framers intended the board to have the authority to exchange school lands without a public auction. Is a sale the "disposal" contemplated by Section 1? That reading would be consistent with Section 3's use of the term "sale" when referring to the action that can only occur at public auction. Did the framers mean any transaction that resulted in an exchange of school lands for other lands of equal value must occur at public auction? What did the framers intend by giving the board authority over direction, control, and leasing in addition to "disposal"? None of these questions is answered by the plain language used by the framers. Consequently, we must resort to the rules of construction to glean their intent.
As we have noted:
"'In interpreting statutes, we primarily determine the legislature's intent. If the language is sufficiently clear, we do not resort to rules of construction. We apply our general rule that we look to the ordinary and obvious meaning of a statute when the language is unambiguous.'" Thunderbasin Land, Livestock & Investment Co. v. County of
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