Court Opinion

ID: 9639512
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:21:15.219712+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:19.423009
License: Public Domain

STEPHENS, Associate Justice
(dissenting in part, concurring in part).
I dissent from the view of the majority that the court is warranted at this stage of the case in passing upon the constitutional questions and upon the question of authority: The case is not here after a hearing at which proof has been adduced. It is here on appeal from a ruling of the trial court granting a motion to dismiss the bill of complaint. The bill sought a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, and, upon final hearing, a permanent injunction.
Briefly stated, the assertions of the bill are that: Rexford G. Tugwell, Administrator, Resettlement Administration, and John S. Lansill, Director, Suburban Resettlement Division, as officers of the United States, and their agents, have procured, are procuring and will procure revocable offers to sell lands located within the Township of Franklin, in New Jersey, and unless restrained they will accept these offers and will, by moneys furnished through Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury, W. A. Julian, Treasurer, Guy Allen, Chief Disbursing Officer, Disbursements Division, and J. R. McCarl, Comptroller General, as officers of the United States, pay for these lands and take' deeds to the same in favor of the United States; thereupon Tugwell, Lansill, and other agents, will construct a “model community” thereon, to consist of single and multiple dwelling houses, and will cause persons of low income from surrounding congested areas and from the immediate neighborhood to tenant such community, induced so to do by the offer of rentals lower than those procurable elsewhere. The rentals will not meet the cost of construction, but operating and maintenance costs only. This project will, by removing from taxation a large portion of the lands within the Township, cause it to suffer losses in revenues; and the project will further interfere with and overburden the governmental func*224tions .of the Township, overburden the functions of the Board of Education of the Township, depress the rental value of lands owned by the Township and of lands owned by Margaret C. Alsop, and increase the burden of taxation upon Margaret C. Alsop, Matthew Suydam, Cornelius I. Van Cleef, John W. Martin and Dorothy McC. Brill, all individual petitioners — this again through the removal from taxation of the lands to be purchased and the consequent increase of taxes upon the remaining properties. These activities are being carried on under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 19351 which, “in order to provide relief, work relief and to increase employment by providing for useful projects,” appropriates funds in the total sum of four billion dollars "to be used in the discretion and under the direction of the President” and to .be available for named classes of projects and in certain respective amounts therefor, subject to a 20% reallocation increase by the President if he finds this necessary to effectuate the purposes of the Act. Among the named classes of projects are highways, rural rehabilitation and relief m stricken agricultural areas, water conservation, rural electrification, housing, assistance for educational, professional and clerical persons, Civilian Conservation Corps, loans, or grants, or both, for projects of states, territories, and the like, sanitation, prevention of soil erosion, stream pollution, sea coast erosion, reforcstatio-n, forestation, flood conti ol,^ rivers and harbors, and miscellaneous projects. The Act specifically authorizes the President to acquire real property by purchase or by eminent domain, and to improve, , / . „ 1 develop, grant, sell, lease or otherwise dis-V’ , pose of the same.
The motion to dismiss, like a demurrer, of course admits the assertions of fact made in the bill, but only for the purpose of testing the validity of the cause of action pleaded and upon the assumption that the assertions of fact can ultimately he proved. Had the motion to dismiss been overruled below, the parties making it, the defendants, could have answered; and should the trial court’s dismissal of the bill be reversed on this appeal, the parties defendant will have a right to answer; in such an answer they may deny the assertions of fact made in the bill, including the assertions of injury upon which the bill in part is predicated and including the assertions of status which bear upon the capacity of the various complainants to sue. In this event the trial court would be compelled at a hearing to determine the actualities of the case upon proof.
The United States Supreme Court has on more than one occasion ruled that constitutional questions should not be passed upon until it is necessary to pass upon them, and then not until the facts which relate to such questions have been made to appear. In Borden’s F. P. Co. v. Baldwin, 293 U.S. 194, 55 S.Ct. 187, 79 L.Ed. 281 — a suit to enjoin enforcement of the New York milk control law on the ground that it was unconstitutional — a cause of action was held to be disclosed in the fojij but the Court sent the case back for trial without passing .upon the constitutional question. Speaking for the Court, Chief Justice Hughes said:
"But the case is not before us upon evidence, or upon determinations of fact based on evidence, as the complaint was dismissed solely in the view that it failed to state a cause of action and the motion for injunction accordingly fell without findings being made. As we have said, we may read the complaint in the light of facts of which we may take judicial notice, but if, so read, it may be regarded as sufficient, the decision of this appeal should not turn on other facts are the proper subjects of evidence and of determinations of fact by the trial court." 293 U.S. 194, at pages 208, 209, 55 S.Ct. 187, 191, 79 L.Ed. 281. and further:
. , . ,. “But where the legislative action is suit- ,, , . , , . , ably challenged, and a rational basis for .. . ., .. . it is predicated upon the particular economic facts of a given trade or industry, which are outside the sphere’ of judicial notice, these facts are properly the subject of evidence and of findings. With the notable expansion of the scope of governmental regulation, and the consequent assertion of violation of constitutional rights, it is increasingly important that when it becomes necessary for the Court to deal with the facts relating to particular commercial or industrial conditions, they should be presented concretely with appropriate determinations upon evidence, so that conclusions shall not be reached without adequate factual support.” 293 *225U.S. 194, at page 210, 55 S.Ct. 187, 192, 79 L.Ed. 281.
In Hammond v. Schappi Bus Line, 275 U.S. 164, at pages 171, 172, 48 S.Ct. 66, 69, 72 L.Ed. 218, a case involving questions of constitutional power and statutory authority, the Court, through Mr. Justice Brandeis held:
“Before any of the questions suggested, which are both novel and of far reaching importance, are passed upon by this court, the facts essential to their decision should be definitely found by the lower courts upon adequate evidence.”
In Wilshire Oil Co. v. United States, 295 U.S. 100, 55 S.Ct. 673, 79 L.Ed. 1329, the trial court had granted an interlocutory injunction against the enforcement of the Petroleum Code formulated under the National Industrial Recovery Act; on appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals (for the Ninth Circuit) the latter certified to the Supreme Court the question whether it had power on appeal from the interlocutory order to decide the question as to the total absence of a cause of action. The Supreme Court, per curiam, dismissed the certificate, but said:
“the Court of Appeals is not bound to decide, upon the allegations of the bill, an important constitutional question, as to which the Court, of Appeals is in doubt, in advance of an appropriate determination by the District Court of the facts of the case to which the challenged statute is sought to be applied.” 295 U.S. 100, at pages 102, 103, 55 S.Ct. 673, 674, 79 L.Ed. 1329.
I therefore disagree with the view of the majority that it is unnecessary in this case “to trifle with any findings of fact, where no statements of fact could throw additional light * * * ” upon constitutional questions, because I think it an unwarranted conclusion that findings of fact could throw no additional light upon the constitutional questions herein involved. On the contrary, I think it demonstrable that findings of fact may throw additional light thereon.
There are three constitutional questions in the case: first, whether the statute under which the activities complained of are being carried on is within the so-called Welfare Clause, article I, § 8, cl. 1, of the Constitution; second, if so, whether the activities complained of are being carried on in a manner which, contrary to the Tenth Amendment, invades the-reserved powers of the states; third, whether the statute in question is an invalid delegation of legislative power to the President, contrary to article I, § 1.
With respect to the Welfare Clause: It is made clear in United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1, 56 S.Ct. 312, 319, 80 L.Ed. 477, 102 A.L.R. 914, that whether a statute and activities thereunder are valid within “The necessary implication from the terms of the grant * * * that the public funds may be appropriated ‘to provide for the general welfare of the United States’ ” depends upon whether the purpose is “general, and not local.” But it is also made clear that when a contention is made that a statute is in contravention of the fundamental law “we naturally require a showing that by no reasonable possibility can the challenged legislation fall within the wide range of discretion permitted to Congress. How great is the extent of that range, when the subject is the promotion of the general welfare of the United States, we need hardly remark.” In the instant case there would seem to be two inquiries in respect of the Welfare Clause, first, whether general conditions of unemployment and destitution do affect the general welfare, and, if so, second, whether a statute passed “in order to provide relief, work relief and to increase employment by providing for useful projects,” as above particularized, including, so far as this case is concerned, housing, is an appropriate means of administering to the general welfare. The answer to each of these inquiries depends upon facts, such as, so far as the first inquiry is concerned, the extent and probable permanence of unemployment and destitution, the probable effects thereof upon the nation through, conceivably, such factors as social disorder, crime, sickness and the like, and such as, so far as the second inquiry is concerned, the need of employment in such industries as furnish materials for housing, and the need and the extent thereof of houses for the destitute. Other facts may aid in one way or another the solution of these two problems. It is not possible to foresee all of the ramifications of pertinent fact involved; it is that very impossibility which makes decision before hearing upon the merits unwarranted.
With respect to the asserted invasion of the reserved powers of the states: Unit*226ed States v. Butler, supra, makes clear that again the answer is dependent upon facts. It was held in that case that Congress, by coercion and purchase, had obtained compliance with a Federal program which it was without power to command. Whether in this case the asserted invasion of the reserved powers of the State of New Jersey by the shifting of its low-income population from one part of the State to another is to be carried on by coercion or purchase, or whether on the other hand the Government is choosing to erect houses usefully rather than uselessly, that is, so that they will serve not only the purpose of providing labor but also of providing homes which will naturally, rather than through coercion and purchase, attract the needy, are matters of fact importantly bearing upon the question of law.
Finally, with respect to the asserted unconstitutional delegation of legislative power: Passing the interesting and important question whether the statute involved is not within a category which presents no question of delegation, and assuming that it is within a category which does present such a question, that question cannot properly be answered, in my opinion, without further facts. Beginning with Cargo of Brig Aurora v. United States, 7 Cranch 382, 3 L.Ed. 378, and ending with Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495, 55 S.Ct. 837, 79 L.Ed. 1570, 97 A.L.R. 947, and through all of the intervening leading cases on delegation,2 the United States Supreme Court has drawn not a straight line, definitive of the territory between the legislative and executive function, but a variable, the product of two factors, the one the duty of Congress to do its own legislating, and the other the practical necessities in the subject matter and conditions of the legislation. In Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan, 293 U.S. 388, 55 S.Ct. 241, 79 L.Ed. 446, the Supreme Court, recognizing that:
“Congress manifestly is not permitted to abdicate, or to transfer to others, the essential legislative functions wit-h which it is thus vested,” 293 U.S. 388, at page 421, 55 S.Ct. 241, 248, 79 L.Ed. 446. also recognized:
“Undoubtedly legislation must often be adapted to complex conditions involving a host of details with which the national legislature cannot deal directly. The Constitution has never been regarded as denying to the Congress the necessary resources of flexibility and practicality, which will enable it to perform its function in laying down policies and, establishing standards, while leaving to selected instrumentalities the making of subordinate rules within prescribed limits and the determination of facts to which the policy as declared by the legislature is to apply. Without capacity to give authorizations of that sort we should have the anomaly of a legislative power which in many circumstances calling for its exertion would be but a futility. But the constant recognition of the necessity and validity of such provisions and the wide range of administrative authority which has been developed by means of them, cannot be allowed' to obscure the limitations of the authority to delegate, if our constitutional system is to be maintained.” (Italics supplied.) 293 U.S. 388, at page 421, 55 S.Ct. 241, 248, 79 L.Ed. 446.
In the series of cases cited, principles, policies and standards have been laid down by Congress varying from extremes of definiteness on the one hand to extremes of indefiniteness on the other. Exemplifying definiteness is Hampton, Jr., & Co. v. United States, 276 U.S. 394, 48 S.Ct. 348, 72 L.Ed. 624, where a statute was upheld empowering and directing the President to increase Or decrease duties in such manner as to equalize the difference between the cost of production at home and abroad, but only after investigation by the Tariff Commission as a necessary preliminary to a proclamation changing the duties. Exemplifying indefiniteness is United States v. Grimaud, 220 U.S. 506, *22731 S.Ct. 480, 55 L.Ed. 563, sustaining a statute authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to make such rules and regulations as would insure the objects of forest reservations, namely, to regulate their occupancy and use and to preserve the forests thereon from destruction. This recognition by the Supreme Court of the validity of legislation announcing principles, policies and standards varying in respect of definiteness, and the statement of the general principle above quoted from Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan, make clear, I think, that the proper and necessary limits of legislative exactness cannot be determined by courts without knowledge of the subject matter and conditions of the legislation. In the instant case, still assuming that the statute is within a category presenting a question of delegation, whether Congress could specify with greater definiteness than it did by the word “housing” what kind of structures should be erected for the relief of unemployment and to provide homes for the needy, and whether Congress could specify with greater definiteness where such structures should be erected, depend upon conditions which would vary as to locality and change with time.
With respect to the Welfare Clause and the reserved powers of the states, facts cannot, of course, create or enlarge Federal power. Neither can they diminish nor obliterate it. But they may call for its exercise and they may affect the manner of its exercise. With respect to delegation, that is, the duty of Con-' gress itself to legislate, facts cannot relieve it from that duty. Neither can they prevent it from performing the same. I do not assume to pass upon the effect upon the constitutional questions herein of such facts as are above suggested, and I do not assume now to pass upon those questions. I assert merely that to pass upon them without proof of the facts is to render an opinion in the abstract, in effect an advisory opinion.
With respect to the question of authority: The majority opinion, I think, fails to differentiate between that question and the question of delegation. The latter has to do with the validity of the statute; the former with whether or not the acts which are being done under the statute were contemplated, by its language. I think that on the question of authority also there should be no ruling until the facts are proved.3 The assertions of the bill and the conclusions of the majority on the question of authority are in effect that the activities being carried on under the Executive Order setting up the Resettlement Administration and defining its powers and duties are beyond the purview of the statute, so that the President has assumed power. Before so sweeping a conclusion is reached, I think the court should be informed by proof— not merely by the bill — as to • what the President and his agents are doing.4 Moreover, whether the actual activities of the Resettlement Administration are* within the language of the statute may again depend upon the conditions of the legislation. Congress may be taken to have intended useful housing projects, and whether they could be useful without erection in such localities as would make tenancy likely is a question of fact.
With respect to the topics of capacity to sue and cause of action in the respective complainants: I disagree with the conclusion of the majority that the Township has a proprietary interest which will enable it to maintain a suit, to wit, as the owner of real property which it leases to a private individual and the rental value of which is threatened with impairment. The majority has reached the conclusion, with which I agree, that complainant Margaret C. Alsop has no cause of action for threatened impairment of the rental value of her land. This conclusion is based upon the proposition that the case stated for her is one merely of damnum absque injuria, this upon the faith of New Orleans, M. & T. Railroad Co. v. Ellerman, 105 U.S. 166, 26 L.Ed. 1015, and United States v. Dern, 63 App.D.C. 28, 68 F.(2d) 773, certiorari denied 292 U.S. 642, 54 S.Ct. 776, 78 L.Ed. 1494. I am unable to understand how the majority reaches the conclusion that threatened impairment of the rental value of an in*228dividual’s property is damnum absque injuria, and at the same time concludes that threatened impairment of the rental value of the Township’s property, held in a proprietary capacity, is damnum atque injuria.
Upon the assumption that the facts alleged can be proved, and that the acts of the defendants, are without constitutional validity or statutory authority,' T agree with the conclusion of the majority that the Township has capacity to sue and states a cause of action with reference to interference with its governmental functions. It is true that In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564, 15 S.Ct. 900, 39 L.Ed. 1092, holds merely that the United States may invoke the powers of a court of equity to protect the exercise of its governmental functions. But the principle and language of the case make it applicable to any government. The remaining question as to whether or not' the Township can proceed for itself, that is, rather than the State of New Jersey for it, is, I think, sufficiently answered by the New Jersey cases: Township of Landis v. Millville Gas Light Co., 72 N.J.Eq. 347, 65 A. 716; Easton & Amboy R. Co. v. Inhabitants of Greenwich Tp., 25 N.J.Eq. 565; Mayor and Council of Seabright v. Allgor, 69 N.J.Law 641, 56 A. 287. These authorities recognize that in New Jersey a township has authority to bring suit in protection of its own functions. If it has thus capacity to sue at all, I think there is no rule of law which will prevent its suing outside New Jersey. It is a municipal corporation, an entity recognized by law, and presumptively the courts are everywhere open to it. Since it is thus held that there is a cause of action stated in the Township with reference to its- governmental functions, I think it .unnecessary to pass upon the question whether there is a cause of action stated in the Township for loss of revenues which would have arisen from lands heretofore assessed but which are to be the subject of title in the Government and therefore not subject to taxation. I think it clear, however, that no cause of action is stated in the Township in respect of increased expense in the carrying on of its governmental functions, this for lack of an allegation that such expense cannot be covered' by an increased rate of taxation. Florida v. Mellon, 273 U.S. 12, 47 S.Ct. 265, 71 L.Ed. 511.
I agree with the conclusion of the majority that the Board of Education states no cause of action for protection of its governmental functions. No authorities are adduced indicating that in New Jersey a Board of Education, as distinguished from a township, has authority to sue. There is, furthermore, lacking any allegation in respect of. the Board of Education that the asserted (it is upon this that it predicates its cause) impending loss of a large portion of the sources of its revenue cannot be made up by an increased tax rate in the Township.
Upon the assumptions above- specified, I agree with the conclusion of the majority that a cause of action is stated in each individual taxpayer complainant for threatened increase in his tax burden. Crampton v. Zabriskie, 101 U.S. 601, 25 L.Ed. 1070, and Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Employers’ Ass’n of Md., 162 Md. 124, 159 A. 267, sufficiently recognize, I think, the right of a taxpayer to take proceedings to prevent wrongful acts which will increase his tax burden. I think the facts asserted in the instant case distinguish it from Frothingham v. Mellon, 262 U.S. 447, 43 S.Ct. 597, 67 L.Ed. 1078, holding that a taxpayer of the United States may not question expenditures from the Treasury on the ground that the alleged unlawful diversion will deplete the public funds and thus increase the burden of further taxation, this for the reason that his assert,ed injury, shared with all other taxpayers, is comparatively minute and indeterminable. In the instant case the individual taxpayer sues not primarily to question the legality of expenditures from the Federal Treasury but to enjoin a threatened step in an allegedly unconstitutional program, from which, in common only with other taxpayers in the Township, he will, it is asserted, suffer an increased tax burden.
I agree with the conclusion of the majority that those who are asserted to have given revocable options for purchases of land are not necessary parties. I think that the interest of a prospective seller, like that of a prospective purchaser, is too remote. Cherokee Nation v. Hitchcock, 187 U.S. 294, 23 S.Ct. 115, 47 L.Ed. 183; Rorick v. Board of Com’rs of Everglades Drainage Dist. (D.C.) 27 F.(2d) 377.
*229I agree also with the conclusion of the majority that the United States is not a necessary party. I think this point is controlled by the principle actuating the decisions in: Payne v. Central Pac. Ry. Co., 255 U.S. 228, 41 S.Ct. 314, 65 L.Ed. 598; Northern Pac. Ry. Co. v. North Dakota, 250 U.S. 135, 39 S.Ct. 502, 63 L.Ed. 897; Wells v. Roper, 246 U.S. 335, 38 S.Ct. 317, 62 L.Ed. 755; Lane v. Watts, 234 U.S. 525, 34 S.Ct. 965, 58 L.Ed. 1440; United States v. Lee, 106 U.S. 196, 1 S.Ct. 240, 27 L.Ed. 171; Transcontinental & Western Air v. Farley (C.C.A.) 71 F.(2d) 288, certiorari denied, 293 U.S. 603, 55 S.Ct. 119, 79 L.Ed. 695. These cases, each brought upon the theory that Government officers were acting without power and holding in the Northern Pac. Ry. Co., the Lee, the Payne, and the Lane Cases, the United States not a necessary party, and in the Farley and Roper Cases, a necessary party, are in my opinion, clearly explainable, as follows: Where a plaintiff asserts th'at an officer of the Government is acting without power and that therefore his acts are invalid, the court in determining the preliminary jurisdictional question whether the United States is a necessary party (whether necessary parties are before a court is, of course, jurisdictional), is confronted with a peculiar procedural problem, or impasse, arising out of the fact that the determination of this question involves passing upon the very question involved in the merits. For example, in the Northern Pac. Ry. Co. Case, brought to restrain the Director General of Railroads, who had imposed a schedule of intrastate rates, from enforcing the same, upon the ground that he had no power except respecting interstate rates, the question arose at the threshold whether the United States was a necessary party. Necessary parties are those “affected by the judgment and against which iii fact it will operate. * * * ” Minnesota v. Hitchcock, 185 U.S. 373, 387, 22 S.Ct. 650, 655, 46 L.Ed. 954. If the Director General had no power over intrastate rates, then the United States was not a necessary party because it had nothing to do with the imposition and enforcement thereof, and a judgment restraining the effectiveness of the schedule would operate only against the Director General individually. If, on the contrary, the Director General had power over intrastate rates, then the United States was responsible for his impos-
mg and enforcing the schedule and the judgment would operate against it. Thus the ultimate question was also’ the jurisdictional question. A similar problem was presented in each case of the group mentioned. Since a court must determine at the outset its jurisdiction to proceed, it is compelled to make a preliminary decision for jurisdictional purposes on the ultimate question in the suit, and this notwithstanding the fact that when the merits are heard, it may be compelled to reach an opposite conclusion. The courts solve this problem by accepting at their face value, for jurisdictional purposes, the assertions of the complainant of want of power in the officers — unless such assertions are “so unsubstantial and frivolous as to afford no basis for jurisdiction * * *," 5 and by giving the assertions thus accepted their natural jurisdictional consequences in respect of who are necessary parties. Thus in the Northern Pac. Ry. Co. Case the Court, to determine whether the United States was a necessary party, accepted as true the assertions of want of power in the Director General, and thereupon held that the United States was not a necessary party, and this although when the merits were passed on, the Court reached the conclusion that the Director General did have power to impose and enforce the local rates. Again in United States v. Lee, the Court accepted for jurisdictional purposes the assertions of the plaintiff that the officers holding the Lee property for the Government were without power so to do, and thereupon held the Government not a necessary party. In this instance the jurisdictional holding coincided with the ultimate holding. A similar result for the same reason was reached in the Payne and Lane Cases. In the Farley Case the same jurisdictional method resulted in holding the Government a necessary party. The assertions were that Farley was without power to cancel airmail contracts which had been entered into between the United States and the complainant. Accepting this assertion at face value for jurisdictional purposes, the consequence was that if Farley was without power to cancel, the Government was bound to perform; therefore, it was a necessary party, and it was so held. Again in the Roper Case the same result was reached on similar facts and for the same reason. Applying this principle of solution of the preliminary jurisdictional prob*230lem to the instant case: It cannot’ be said that the assertions of want of power in the officers to acquire lands for the Government are “so unsubstantial and frivolous as to afford no basis for jurisdiction. * * * ” Accepting them, therefore, for preliminary jurisdictional purposes only, as true, it follows that the Government is without interest in the proposed purchases of land and therefore not a necessary party. This jurisdictional decision is reached quite without reference to the ultimate decision, on the merits, of the very same question of want of power in the officers.
I conclude, therefore, that the cáse should be returned to the trial court for a hearing on the merits so that proof may be had on all aspects of the case, on the constitutional questions as well as on the assertions of fact which underlie the capacity of the complainants to sue and the cause of action especially asserted in each. I think that during such hearing the status quo ought to be preserved by a temporary injunction as we have preserved it here by such an injunction pending determination of this appeal.
I assume the majority opinion contemplates a right in the defendants to answer in the court below and a hearing there upon the questions of fact other than those relating to the constitutional points, that is to say, a hearing upon the issues of fact relating to the capacity of the complainants to sue and the injury asserted. I think that during such a hearing the status quo should be preserved by a temporary injunction. •

 Act of April 8, 1935, 49 Stat. 115 (15 U.S.C.A. § 728 note).

 Wayman v. Southard, 10 Wheat. 1, 6. L.Ed. 253; Field v. Clark, 143 U.S. 649, 12 S.Ct. 495, 36 L.Ed. 294; Buttfield v. Stranahan, 192 U.S. 470, 24 S. Ct. 349, 48 L.Ed. 525; Union Bridge Co. v. United States, 204 U.S. 364, 27 S.Ct. 367, 51 L.Ed. 523; United States v. Grimaud, 220 U.S. 506, 31 S.Ct. 480, 55 L.Ed. 563; Mutual Film Corp. v. Ohio Industrial Commission. 236 U.S. 230, 35 S. Ct. 387, 59 L.Ed. 552, Ann.Cas.19160, 296; Mahler v. Eby, 264 U.S. 32, 44 S.Ct. 283, 68 L.Ed. 549; Avent v. United States, 266 U.S. 127, 45 S.Ct. 34, 69 L.Ed. 202; Hampton, Jr., & Co. v. United States, 276 U.S. 394, 45 S.Ct. 348, 72 L.Ed. 624; Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan, 293 U.S. 388, 55 S.Ct. 241, 79 L.Ed. 446.

 The reliance in the majority opinion upon United States v. Butler, Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan and Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, supra, as warranting this court in passing now upon the constitutional questions is, I think, not well founded. All of those cases had been heard below on the merits.

 This is not to east doubt upon the good faith of the assertions in the bill. But facts cannot always be set forth in advance of proof with accuracy.

 Northern Pac. Ry. Co. v. North Dakota. 250 U.S. 135, 152, 39 S.Ct. 502, 63 L.Ed. 897.