Court Opinion

ID: 9550654
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:39:48.402335+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:22:05.819072
License: Public Domain

Schwellenbach, C. J.
(dissenting) — I do not share the enthusiasm for administrative agencies expressed in both the majority opinion and Judge Finley’s dissent. If our American • way of life has become so complex that the legislative branch óf government (or the people acting in their legislative capacity) must of necessity set up some administrative agency to perform the intricate details of the purposes proposed by the legislation then confronting it, it cannot delegate authority to such administrative agency which would leave such agency with unguided or unrestricted discretion. In other words, the legislative branch cannot abdicate, or transfer to others, the essential legislative functions with which it is constitutionally vested. *188This becomes more necessary because of the increasingly growing crop of administrative agencies which have sprung up in the past few years. I feel that in initiative 178 the people, acting in their legislative capacity, unlawfully delegated powers to a co-ordinate branch of the government.
The initiative provides that the department shall, by rule and regulation, fix maximum values for both a home and personal property and belongings, and shall also fix maximum units of personal property regardless of value. The initiative also provides that the department shall by rule and regulation fix ceiling values on both home property and personal property and belongings. This gives arbitrary power without restrictions or safeguards to the department. If there should be a change of state administration, a new director, under this act, could completely reverse the rules and regulations adopted under the' present director.
Furthermore, there is nothing in the act to prevent the department from first deciding what amount shall be expended and then prorating the amount to be given to each recipient by the device of lowering the maximum values and units and ceiling values. The delegation of such powers, without restrictions, is unlawful and unconstitutional.