State v. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad

Citations

• 56 Fla. 617

Syllabus

<p>1. In order to justify the courts in declaring invalid as a delegation of legislative power a statute conferring particular duties or authority upon administrative officers'it must clearly appear beyond a reasonable doubt that the duty or authority so conferred is a power that appertains exclusively to the legislative department, and the conferring of it is not warranted by the provisions of the constitution.</p> <p>2. The power accorded the legislature by the constitution for the purpose of regulating intrastate transportation by common carriers is not confined to making rules and regulations. The legislature has authority to do or to cause to be done everything in any manner and by any means requisite to the complete and effectual exercise of the power possessed that is not an undoubted violation of some other provision of the constitution.</p> <p>3. The constitution should be interpreted so as not to render impotent or inoperative, but so as to preserve and make effective, the sovereign power of the State in regulating intrastate transportation by common carriers; and the specific provision of the constitution that the legislature has power to pass laws to correct abuses, and to prevent unjust discriminations and excessive charges by common carriers and others engaged in rendering service of a public nature, should be so applied as to accomplish the purposes expressed therein.</p> <p>4. The legislature may not delegate the power to enact a law, or declare what the law shall be, or to exercise an. unrestricted discretion in applying a law; but it may enact a law complete in itself designed to accomplish a general public purpose, and may expressly authorize designated officials within definite valid limitations to provide rules and regulations for the complete operation and enforcement of the law within its expressed general purpose. This principle of the law is peculiarly applicable to the regulation of common carriers, since the complex and ever-changing condi