### TxxEA-rmmzmz~ GENERAL OFTEXAS

Hon. W. D. Bradfield, Chairman, OpinionNo. O-1768 Texas Liquor Control Board, He: Authority of Texas Liquor Control SouthernMethodist University Board to promulgate rule or regulaDallas, Texas tion that permits to sell intoxicating liquorswill not be issued to Dear Sir: establishments "along the highways."

We have for acknowledgmentyour letter of December 

### 13,1939, wherein you request the opinion of this departmentupon the question whether the Texas Liquor Control Board may promulgate a rule or regulation that permits to sellbeer, beer and wine, and distilled liquors will not be issued,and those issuedwill not be renewed, for the operation of such establishments "along the highways."

Practical difficulties confrontus at the outset in comprehending the scope of your question. The sense in which you use the word “highways" is not apparent. If intendedto refer only to State and Federal designatedhighways,will the rule comprehend only those portions thereof lying outside of incorporated cities or towns? If intended to apply only to State and Federal designatedhighways, and not to streets and roads or public ways generally, then, bearing in mind the fact that the rules of the Board must be reasonable and uniform in their operation, rather than arbitraryand discriminatory,what reasons exist for refusing permits along the State and Federal designatedhighways that do not apply with equal force to the refusal of permits on streetsand public roads generally? What is meant by "along" the highways? Does the Board intend to establish a zone of territory abutting and extendingback from the highways, in which territory permits to operatewill not be granted?

.Thesequestions suggestedby your inquiry serve to indicate the broad scope of the power which the Board asks if it may exercise.

Administrativeboards may exercise only such authority as is conferredupon them by law in clear and unmistakable terms. A power will not be deemed given by implicationor extendedby inference. Commercial Standard InsuranceCo. Y. Board of InsuranceCom'rs., 

### 34 S.W. .(2d) 

### 343;McDonald Y. American Fruit GrowersAss'n., 

### 126S. W. (2d) 

### 83; Opinion No. o-1146, renderedby this departmentto Hon. Bert Ford, Administrator,Texas Liquor Control Board, under date of August 4, 1939.

The Legislature cannot grant to an administrativeagency the power to make a law, though it may confer authorityupon such an agency to fill out the detailsby which the administrationof a complete lawHon. W. D. Bradfield, page 2 (O-l'@)

enacted by the Legislature is effected, in accordaucewith standards or rules of conductprescribedby the Legislature. SchechterPoultry Corpn. Y. U. S., 295 U. S. 495, 79 L. Ed. 1570, and authoritiestherein cited. The scope of the rule-makingpower conferredupon the Texas Liquor Control Board is to be measured by the foregoingrules. An exhaustive analysis of the provisions of the Act or an extended citation of and quotation From the numerous authoritiesupon this subject,would serveno useful purpose. It sufficesto say that, upon a careful examination of the Act in the light of the rules stated,we find nothing which we construeas a grant to the Board by the Legislature of the power to exercise the broad authority necessary to support the validity of the proposed rule or regulation. It follows that the Board is without authority to deny or cancel a permit on the sole ground that the establishment to which it is iasuedWill be operated "along the highway."
Yours very truly A!ITOREEYGEkERALOFTEXAS

By /s/R. W. Fairchild

R. W. Fairchild Assistant RWF:pbp:lm

APPROVED DEC 22, 1939 /s/ Gerald C. Mann ATl?OPXEY

GENERAL OFTEXAS

TBIS OPINION CONSIDEREDAED APPROVED IN LIMPIED COIl-FFaENCE