Court Opinion

ID: 9751545
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:35:00.565301+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:51.114864
License: Public Domain

Henderson, J.,
filed the following dissenting opinion.
The words “general welfare” in the federal constitutiozz have been accorded the widest imaginable scope, and the addition of the word “public” imposes no additional limitation. Still, in the light of the legislative history and in the context, I should agree that the word “general” may properly be construed as the antithesis of “local” or “special”, so as to include only those acts dealing with problems that concern the citizens of the State as a whole rather than of particular localities. In Maryland we have long been familiar with the distinction between public general and public local laws; cf. Norris v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 172 Md. 667, 681, 683, 192 A. 531. Now, however, the majority of the court adopts a novel constructiozi that requires a general law passed at a short session to be absolutely uniform in its application in every part of the State, the challenged Act is general in its terms and in almost all of its applications. The only exception is that in three counties determination of the prevailing rate of per diem wages, to be paid for state road work, is left to the United States Department of Labor as required by existing law. In this one particular field and specific area, the Commission is authorized and directed to accept the findings of fact *203made by a federal agency, rather than to make independent findings of fact upon which enforcement is predicated. To my mind the generality of the legislation is not destroyed by a geographical variation in detail that accomplishes the ultimate purpose in a slightly different way. I think the constitutionality of the act should be sustained.