Court Opinion

ID: 9794096
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:59:12.48098+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:11:41.765002
License: Public Domain

Grady, C. J.
(dissenting)—I find nothing vague or uncertain about § 2, p. 303, of chapter 120 of the Laws of 1951 relating to bottle clubs. The statute is a part of the legislative evolution of the control of intoxicating liquor used as a beverage. Bottle clubs as defined must be strictly regulated or they are capable of great harm by reason of overindulgence on the part of their patrons. In aid of such regulations, such clubs may be required to secure a license from public authority. That authority may impose conditions and prescribe rules and regulations of conduct. The statute makes it unlawful to conduct or maintain a bottle club unless a license so to do is secured from the state liquor control board. The legislature has chosen to leave it to the board to determine whether bottle clubs may operate instead of so providing directly. Inasmuch as the use of intoxicating liquor as a beverage may be prohibited, regulatory legislation does not present any question of unlawful delegation of power. The plain purpose and effect of the statute is to authorize the liquor board to issue licenses to operate, conduct and maintain bottle clubs. The board is vested with authority to issue the special kind of a license needed, and it is not limited to the kinds of licenses authorized by other legislation.
*885It may be that the title is not sufficiently definite so that one who might violate its terms could be properly charged with a criminal offense, but this does not render it unconstitutional so as to prevent a bottle club from being operated and maintained pursuant to the terms and conditions of a license. Much greater latitude with reference to the issuance of a license can be extended to the liquor board than is the case where the subject matter is a business which a person has a legal right to engage in but which may be licensed for the purpose of regulation, or revenue, or both. In the latter case, the due process and equal protection clause of the Federal and state constitution must be given full force and effect, while in the former case they apply, if at all, to a very limited extent. I find no constitutional objections to the act in question with reference to such provisions of the constitution.
I am of the opinion that the title to the act meets the tests we have prescribed in many of our cases and that the provision of our constitution with reference to revision or amendments of our acts does not apply.
I am a firm believer in the soundness of the “enrolled bill rule” as recognized in State ex rel. Reed v. Jones, 6 Wash. 452, 34 Pac. 201, and subsequent cases. It is not within the province of the courts to take notice of or inquire into the methods used by the legislature in enacting legislation.
The appellants, on the present state of the record, are entitled to the alternative relief asked by their complaint.