Cummins v. Kansas City Public Service Co.

I respectfully dissent from the principal and concurring opinions. Under the Constitution it is the exclusive function of the legislative branch of the government to make laws; ours is only to construe them. [1] If a statute be ambiguous it is our duty to say what it means, but where it is plain we are without constitutional authority to vary, enlarge or reduce it. Even where legislation is defective or obscure we cannot, under the guise of construction, go beyond the legislative intent in supplying or amending it; and that intention must be gathered primarily from the language used in the…