Request By:
Honorable Hollie Warford
Anderson County Judge
Courthouse
Lawrenceburg, Kentucky 40342
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
For the past two years you have employed as your secretary a young woman who was born in Australia and who is married to an American citizen. However, she has never become a naturalized citizen of the United States.
You ask: Can an alien serve as a secretary to the county judge?
KRS 25.290, relating to the appointment of a stenographer [secretary] to the county judge, contains no restrictions as to aliens. Although alien parents, brothers and sisters not residents [citizens] of the United States do not qualify for compensation under our workmen's compensation law, that in no way disqualifies an alien for serving as a secretary to the county judge. KRS 342.130 and 342.620(19).
The stenographer [usually called secretary] shall do stenographic work and typewriting for the county judge, and shall perform any other duties assigned to such secretary by the county judge. KRS 25.300. Of course in January 2, 1978, KRS 25.290 and 25.300 will be repealed. Even on and after January 2, 1978, it will be a responsibility of fiscal court to provide the county judge/executive with a secretary. There again there is no statute nor constitutional section prohibiting the hiring of an alien to fill that position. See KRS 67.710, effective January 2, 1978.
Of course the county judge's secretary cannot qualify as a public "officer" or notary public, since this requires citizenship of the United States and of Kentucky. See § 228, Kentucky Constitution. Judge Logan wrote in Wagers v. Sizemore, 222 Ky. 306, 300 S.W. 918 (1928) 920, that the constitutional oath prescribed in § 228 of Kentucky's Constitution imposes upon each "officer" the solemnly sworn duty to support the Constitution of the United States as well as the Constitution of this Commonwealth. See also KRS 423.010 and 423.020(1) [which uses the term "his office"]. In 3 Am.Jur.2d, Aliens and Citizens, § 39, p. 889, it is written that "an alien is ineligible to hold public office unless specifically authorized by statute." There is no Kentucky statute authoriting an alien to hold a "public office. " See Howard v. Saylor, 305 Ky. 504, 204 S.W.2d 815 (1947) 817, for the five requisites of a public office. On the other hand, we find no Kentucky statute or constitutional section prohibiting the mere employment of aliens by government.
In summary, an alien is legally qualified to be a secretary to the county judge or county judge/executive. An alien, however, cannot be an "officer" or notary public.