THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL 32 | APRIL 2025 Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff. agent of the Governor”12 nor is it within the governor’s power “to prevent [the attorney general] from discharging any duty imposed upon him by virtue of the constitution or the statutory law.”13 Complicating Oklahoma’s plural executive, however, is the unique role the state’s founding fathers assigned to the governor. While the governor and the attorney general are both vested with a portion of the executive power, the constitution gives the “supreme executive power” to the governor alone.14 THE POWER OF THE GOVERNOR The precise limits of the governor’s “supreme executive power” have never been fully defined, with disagreements over its scope being “nothing new.”15 In July 1908, a mere eight months after the adoption of the state constitution, the first governor asserted his authority over the first attorney general. In State ex rel. Haskell v. Huston, the governor sought to dismiss a lawsuit initiated by the attorney general.16 A unanimous Supreme Court sided with the governor, ruling the attorney general could not initiate any lawsuits without first obtaining the governor’s consent.17 Observing that “the Constitution nowhere designated the duties of the Attorney General,” the court held the attorney general could only exercise those powers that were consistent with state statute.18 Although agreeing that the attorney general possessed broad common law prerogatives, the court ruled the constitution did not protect those powers against legislative alteration, diminishment or abolition.19 Because the relevant statute restricted the attorney general from initiating lawsuits on his own motion,20 the attorney general’s common law powers were abrogated and his actions declared unlawful.21 The governor’s constitutional position differs significantly from the attorney general in this regard. While the constitution declares only with “paucity ... the duties of the state’s Attorney General,”22 it extensively defines the role of the governor. Among the other duties assigned to that office, the constitution leaves no speculation as to whom is to administer the laws enacted by the Legislature: The governor is singularly charged with this task.23 Unlike the attorney general, whose powers may be freely altered by legislative enactment,24 the governor’s investiture of the “supreme executive power” preserves to that office “the complete or full-range of executive powers that were recognized at the
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