Court Opinion

ID: 9688299
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 17:42:54.150471+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:37.280780
License: Public Domain

HAMLIN, Justice
(dissenting).
A reading of the law under attack, Act 457 • of.. 1970, will, readily disclose that it is a code.1 It has all of the indicia of a •code .and was, in my opinion, intended to be a code. The Legislature by means of •a single statute may enact a Codification "of laws on the same general subject matter ;2 the constitutionality of Act. 457 of 1970 should be upheld.
The principal issue of this appeal, as stated in the majority opinion, is whether the Act is unconstitutional because its title is not sufficiently indicative of its object.
It is universally recognized- -that such an attack upon a statute is the weakest known to our law and jurisprudence.
It leaps to the mind that there is not, and cannot be, deceitful practice or a misleading of the Legislature when it is presented with a bill for the suppression and outlawing of dangerous substances.
The painstaking discussion in the majority opinion to show unconstitutionality, to my mind, is an invitation for attacks on other existing laws enacted for the suppression of crime whenever these laws are of unusual length. ' ■ .
*833: .These attacks-.will go on and on forever unless-reason,-common sense, and the rights of the.public are placed before exaggerated judicial concern over the rights of an accused. s-i'J'IJ: i . ■
■I .'respectfully dissent.

. “CODE. A body of law established by the legislative authority of the state, and designed to regulate completely, so far as a statute may, the subjects to which it relates.
“ s ■ * * !> rpjle Cyclopedic Law Dictionary, Third Edition, 1949. See, Wall v. Close, 203 La. 345, 14 So.2d 19, 26 (1943).
“ * * * a codification of the entire .body-. of law, or of the entire body of law on .-a , distinct subject, compiled by a selective process, including some modifica- • tions' .of, and additions to, pre-existing ,-.. law,i. and’ made official through legislative adoption, * * * ” Ballentine’s Law Dictionary, Third Edition, 1969.

. “The Legislature may, however,-; by means of a single statute, enact or revise a system of laws of a general or public nature, such as the general statutes, 'or a codification of laws on the same general subject matter, or both. Such a statute shall be deemed to embrace but one object and its title need only refer .to. t}ie general purpose and scope of the statute.” .Art. Ill, Sec. 16, La.Oonst. of 192J, .as amended.