The 1941 case of Tucker v. State of Indiana [218 Ind. 614, 35 NE2d 270 (1941)] was a landmark decision case by the Indiana Supreme Court who ruled that the Governor of Indiana

Governor of Indiana

The Governor of Indiana is the chief executive of the state of Indiana. The governor is elected to a four-year term, and responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the functions of many agencies of the Indiana state government. The governor also shares power with other statewide...

 is the chief executive of the State of Indiana and that the Indiana General Assembly

Indiana General Assembly

The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate...

 has no authority to delegate or regulate authority granted to that office by the Constitution of Indiana

Constitution of Indiana

There have been two Constitutions of the State of Indiana. The first constitution was created when the Territory of Indiana sent forty-three delegates to a constitutional convention on June 10, 1816 to establish a constitution for the proposed State of Indiana after the United States Congress had...

. Until the decision by the court, it was held by the General Assembly that they could delegate and revoke executive authority at will.

Case

The state of Indiana has historically had a weak executive branch and a strong legislature, stemming from its original constitution and the restrictions placed on the office by the anti-governor faction in the constitutional convention who resented the powers of the territorial governors. The governorship remained a weak position until the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 when the Governor suppressed the legislature and took on unconstitutional powers. In the years after the war, the legislature removed much of the authority and weakened the position to its lowest state, by placing regulations on the office and removing its authority to appoint state officers and hire public employees. The situation continued until 1933 when the Democraticly controlled legislature passed the Executive Reorganization Act to grant to governor expansive powers over the burgeoning Great Depression government bureaucracy. When Republicans resumed power in 1941, they immediately repealed the act and put in place the State Administration Act of 1941 to return the governor to his pre-depression level of power. The act reorganized the government into five departments that were under the control of commissioners.

Democratic Governor Henry F. Schricker

Henry F. Schricker

Henry Frederick Schricker was the 36th and 38th Governor of the American state of Indiana from 1941 to 1945 and from 1949 to 1953. He is the only Indiana governor elected to two non-consecutive terms, and the only governor between 1852 and 1977 to be elected to more than one term in office...

 filed a suit against the law after its passage and was able to have the law stayed. Republican Indiana Secretary of State James M. Tucker filed a counter suit claiming the circuit courts had no authority to stay an act of the legislature and appealed the decision to the Indiana Supreme Court. The court at that time had four Democratic members and one Republican. The court convened and heard the case and ruled in favor of the governor in a four to one decision along party lines. Their decision stated the governor is in fact the chief executive of the state, and that legislature could not revoke his powers or delegate them to others if they were expressly granted to him in the state constitution. The decision was landmark because up until that time, the legislature had freely regulated the powers of the governor and the decision created for the first time a legal basis for the governor to assume power in areas previously delegated to other officials. The decision remains an important factor in the state’s patronage system.