Evening star., 1936-07-27
BAR REPORT HITS
ADDED AUTHORITY
GIVEN PRESIDENT
Increasing Tendency to Shift
Power to Executive
Branch ASSaiIed,
3.YEAR STUDY BASIS
OF 75.PAGE SURVEY
U. s. Administrative Court to Cor.
rect Abuses Is Recon-
mended.

A severe arraignment of the increas-
ing tendency of Congress to delegate
legislative and judicial powers to the
President and executive officials in
defiance of the Constitution is con-
tanned in a 75-page report submitted
to the American Bar Association by
its Special Committee on Admins
trative Law
Included also in the report are pro-
posals to curb practice by members of
Congress, Federal officials and officers
OF party organizations before Federal
agencies in and out of Washington,
and the correction of defects Of GER
tain legislation such as the Black
bill introduced in TIE last Congress
seeking to regulate lobbying.
Based on a three-year study of
Federal administrative practices, in
cluding the rapidly expanding alpha
betical agencies created by the New
Deal, the committee made public today
its conclusions and recommendations
Chief among these it set forth the
principle for the establishment of a
Federal administrative court.
Such court was proposed "as a
logical and commendable step toward
better and more efficient administra-
ton OF justice in the United States
and toward eradication of the evils
- resulting from the wholesale re-
posing of judicial functions in a
multiplicity of Federal administrative
agencies"
Findings Are Presented.
In an indictment of the existing
encroachments of the executive de-
partments on judicial and legislative
powers, the committee report disclosed
its exhaustive study revealed:
That there are approximately 70
Federal administrative agencies eXer-
cising judicial power in 267 classes of
cases and about 1900 instances of
delegation of legislative power by Con-
gress to such agencies in the Federal
statute books.
The recommendations of the COM
mittee will come before the American
Bar Association for action at its an
nual meeting in Boston the week
commencing August "a. Its study was
made In answer to a mandate handed
down by the Bar Association in 1888.
Earlier reports made by the committee
analyzed defects in the existing sys-
tenn which attracted Nationwide in.
terest and met with the approval Of
an overwhelming majority of the bar
membership.
0. r. MCGUIRE, Clarendon, Va, is
chairman Of the special committee,
the other members being Monte Appel
OF st. Paul, Richard Bentley of Chi
cago. Louis c. Caldwell of Washing.
ton and Julius C. Smith of Green's
boro, N. c.
Holds Rigid Ruling Impossible.
The committee freely comedies that
with respect to delegation of legis-
lative power rigid application of the
separation f-powers doctrine is
neither possible nor desirable. A wide
latitude must be allowed to Congress,
subject, of course, to the underlying
purpose of the constitutional limita-
tion."
In this committee it discussed at
length the recent Supreme Court
opinions in the hot oil, the Schechter
and the Guffy coal act cases. While
refraining from expressing any view
on the correctness of the conclusions
drawn by the majority and the
minority, respectively, in those cases.
the committee expressed its belief
that the minority test approaches
more closely to furnishing a sound
and workable rule and that certain of
the tests laid down in this majority
opinion cannot survive practical ex-
perience and the realities of statutes
now on the books"
Extreme examples Of delegated
legislative power" as furnished by a
number of statutes enacted under
the New Deal and overturned by the
Supreme Court, were cited by the
committee as indicating the length to
which Congress has gone in yielding
power to executive agencies.
Terms Dangers "Obvious."
While expressing no opinion as to
the constitutionality of this type Of
delegated power, the committee docs
not hesitate to say that its dangers
are obvious and that its use should
be restricted to rare occasions"
The committee recommended adop-
ton by the American Bar Association
of an amendment to section 113 of the
criminal code so as to forbid practice
before Federal administrative agencies
by members Of Congress, Government
officials, officers of Government-owned
corporations, and officers and com.
mitteemen Of national and State DO.
litical organizations whether with or
without" compensation.
Present Statute Cited.
The present statute, it pointed out,
merely forbids the rendering of such
services by Senators, Representatives
and Government officials for compen-
sation.
Creation of an administrative court,
the report said, would remedy existing
evils, tending to eliminate the over
tapping jurisdictions and to decrease
the centralization of hearings in
Washington. Its essential purpose
would be to provide a means for the
gradual segregation of judicial func-
tions now exercised by administrative
agencies and to establish an indepen-
dent forum for the exercises of those
functions on issues both of law and
fact, either originally or on review Of
the decisions of such agencies.