Court Opinion

ID: 9565376
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:19:40.416411+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:35.397927
License: Public Domain

Hill, Justice,
dissenting.
This case presents again the years-old controversy: Can the General Assembly delegate law-making authority, in this case crime-making authority, to experts in the executive branch of government? The General Assembly sought to do so in 1955 (Ga. L. 1955, pp. 483, 491; Code Ann. § 45-116), and the majority now say this cannot be done.
While I do not subscribe to uncontrolled bureaucratic law-making authority, neither do I subscribe to the concept that the General Assembly is the only body *97capable of setting hunting and fishing seasons for various species of animals depending upon their population, fixing bag and creel limits, regulating hunting and fishing methods and utensils, etc. In my view the General Assembly should not be saddled with determining the squirrel limit and season in each county, district or zone in this state annually. In my view the General Assembly should be able to delegate such responsibility to the Board of Commissioners of the Department of Natural Resources which has available the recommendations of the department’s game management specialists and field personnel.
A glance at the necessarily detailed delineation of seasons and territories of the sundrae classifications of wildlife as set out in the department’s hunting regulations, fishing regulations, trout regulations and management area guide, 1976-77, will illustrate this problem. Why must the General Assembly adopt every year necessarily changing dates, limits, boundaries, and classifications? Our sportsmen and ecologists deserve better.
Neither the wildlife in this state nor the legislative logjam will be efficiently managed under such a system. The department will not be able to meet the desires of the people to both preserve and enjoy wildlife in Georgia. In the interim, until the General Assembly acts, it seems that none of the otherwise valid regulations promulgated by the Department of Natural Resources can be enforced in court.
Therefore (although a legislative veto provision would provide another safeguard) in order to avoid overburdening the General Assembly with game and fish management details, I would approve the legislative limits prescribed in Code Ann. §§ 45-114, 45-115, and thereby uphold the validity of Code Ann. § 45-116. I therefore dissent.
I am authorized to state that Justice Jordan and Justice Ingram join in this dissent.