Opinion ID: 2430151
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: May the Legislature create the agency as a body politic and corporate?

Text: Appellants challenge the authority of the Legislature to create a public body corporate and politic to be known as an Urban Renewal Agency. They argue that the Legislature may create only those bodied politic specifically set out in the Constitution or which are authorized to conserve natural resources under Section 59 of Article 16 of our Constitution. They cite no authority to support their views, and we have found none. On the contrary, this Court upheld the delegation of authority, to and the actions of, the Housing Authority of Dallas in that slum-clearance-low-cost housing case. [33] An analogous attack was made upon the National Guard Armory Board, a body politic and corporate, [34] and upon the Texas Turnpike Authority. In both instances, the existence of the agencies and the delegation of authority to them was upheld. [35] In the Turnpike case, the distinction was made between bodies politic created under the Conservation Amendment and those which were not. As to the latter, this Court said: Nevertheless no provision of the Constitution prohibits the Legislature from creating a governmental agency and body politic as provided in the [Turnpike] Act under consideration   . [36] The point is therefore overruled.