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Mogard v. City of Laramie9/24/2001
n by applying the six criteria identified in Saldana, 846 P.2d at 622 (Golden, J., concurring):
1. The textual language.
2. The differences in the texts.
3. Constitutional history.
4. Pre-existing state law.
5. Structural differences.
6. Matters of particular state or local concern.
TEXTUAL LANGUAGE/DIFFERENCES IN THE TEXTS/STRUCTURAL DIFFERENCES
[ ] These three factors are intertwined. Juxtaposition of the emphasized phrases from the two constitutional provisions reveals that they are substantially similar in wording. Another similarity is that the right to counsel is one right among several others, those others also being substantially similar between the two constitutional provisions. A notable similarity is that the right to counsel exists under both constitutions "in all criminal prosecutions."
[ ] One difference between the two provisions is that the right to counsel is the last right listed in the Sixth Amendment, while it is the first right listed in Wyo. Const. art. 1, § 10. The appellant contends that, by placing the right to counsel at the beginning of the provision, the framers of the Wyoming Constitution meant to give it "special significance." He presents no authority for this proposition. We are not convinced that constitutional protections should be given different values or priorities based solely upon their placement in the document. Likewise, the slight textual differences between the Sixth Amendment and Wyo. Const. art. 1, § 10 demonstrate little. Vasquez, 990 P.2d at 485. In short, we cannot discern from the text or structure of Wyo. Const. art. 1, § 10 any intent to offer greater protection than the Sixth Amendment.
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY
[ ] As every American schoolchild should know, our federal constitution was adopted in the years after the Revolutionary War to supplant the Articles of Confederation, the Articles having failed to create a sufficiently strong national government. Not everyone was convinced, however, that a strong national government was necessarily a good thing, so the Bill of Rights--the first ten amendments--was added to ensure that this new government did not interfere with the identified rights. A hundred years later, when Wyoming adopted its constitution, the rights of the people were "declared" in the first article of that document, rather than being appended as amendments.
[ ] In his brief, the appellant recites at length the debates of the Wyoming Constitutional Convention as they appear in the Journal and Debates of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Wyoming (1889). While this effort is laudable, it casts little light on the comparison between the right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment and the right to counsel under Wyo. Const. art. 1, § 10. Ironically, the one material revelation noted from the Journal and Debates is that, on September 26, 1889, Art. 1, § 10 was amended by a majority vote upon the following recommendation:
Mr. CAMPBELL: I have another amendment which I wish to offer. Sec. 10, I believe that was not amended. Now, Mr. President, I don't think this committee here can improve on the language of the United States statute on this subject, and I therefore move to amend by striking out the words "to meet the witnesses opposed face to face," and put in the language which everybody understands, "to be confronted with the witnesses against him." That is the language that has been passed upon by the courts, and we all know what it means. Journal and Debates at 726.
The replacement language is, of course, not the language of a "United States statute," but
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