allowing county referendum on liquor does not violate rule that prevents the legislature from delegating its power to make a law
How later courts described this case
- allowing county referendum on liquor does not violate rule that prevents the legislature from delegating its power to make a law
- challenge to local option liquor law on grounds that law was unconstitutional delegation of legislative powers
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Dissenting Opinion.
Mr. Justice Cook,
delivered tbe dissenting opinion.
I concur in so much of tbe opinion of tbe Court as sustains tbe power of tbe Legislature to enact local option laws. An interesting case involving this subject is
Bowman v. Virginia State
Entomologist, 128 Va., 351 , 105 S. E., 141 , 12 A. L. R., 1121.
My difficulty about tbe conclusion of tbe Court is that
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we have in this State general statutes which denounce as crimes the manufacture, possession,'storage and transportation of intoxicating liquor and impose severe penalties which are drastically, sometimes harshly, applied throughout the State. These laws the Legislature left in force and then delegated power to the voters of a county to suspend them within their county.
It is beyond the power of the Legislature to suspend such géneral laws by direct legislation or, under the guise of local option, delegate the power to the voters of a locality to suspend them.