Court Opinion

ID: 9651582
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:27:48.585772+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:36.390365
License: Public Domain

BUFFINGTON, Circuit Judge.
I concur in the conclusion reached by the court *214but, in one particular, on different grounds. The act of Congress on ‘which this sale rests provides, “That any property sold under this act, except when sold to the United States, shall be sold only to American citizens, at public sale to the highest bidder, after public advertisement * * * unless the President stating the reasons therefor, in the public interest shall otherwise determine.” In my judgment Congress by this twelfth section of the act confided a personal trust and imposed a personal duty on. the President, It was the President who was to determine, and his determination involved his ascertainment of public necessity and his statement' of the reasons thereto moving him. In my judgment this personal presidential trust could not be delegated, and the delegation of it to Mr. Polk was not in accord with the statute, and therefore was without warrant of-law. But the President’s subsequent approval and ratification of what was done under the delegation constituted such personal ae-' tion by the President as validates the sale. I therefore concur in the conclusion reached.