Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1912. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... Ill THE POLICE POWER AS CONSTRUED BY STATE AND FEDERAL COURTS To understand this problem of the proper relation of the people to the scope of the regulative powers of their government, it is necessary first to state and analyze the problem and see how it arises. Practically all of the provisions of the State and Federal constitutions are, necessarily, what may for convenience be termed "specific" provisions. That is to say, they are definite and understandable expressions of the popular will, now or at the time they were adopted by the people; their meaning is ascertainable with reasonable certainty --from their own phraseology or from their context--under a layman's inspection, or, at most, under accepted rules of legal interpretation; and they clearly and specifically empower or forbid some department of government, or the inhabitants of some governmental unit, to do a definite and concrete thing or category of things. Such provisions no one suggests but that the courts should be permitted to interpret and apply; few would suggest but that the courts should be permitted to continue to declare "void" any legislation which contravenes them. Therefore, it may be said that constitutional provisions of this explicit and "specific" character are in nowise involved in the present discussion. To illustrate: Section 18, Article I, of the New York State constitution provides, as do similarly the constitutions of several other States, that The right of action now existing to recover damages for injuries resulting in death shall never be abrogated, and the amount recoverable shall not be subject to any statutory limitation. This is a simple, definite proposition, with an unvarying and unvariable meaning under any meaning of interpretation, and, while judges, the ...
