96 S.W.2d 699 | Ark. | 1936
Pursuant to the authority conferred by act 323 of the Acts of 1935 (page 889), the Game and Fish Commission passed and promulgated certain regulations for the protection of the wild life of the State. Among the regulations so passed was one prohibiting the chasing of deer with dogs in Grant and other counties, but not including the whole State, and changing the *841 season and days in which deer might be taken in Grant and other counties, but not including the whole State.
Appellees, citizens of Grant county, sought to enjoin the Commission from promulgating and enforcing these rules relating to chasing and taking deer in Grant county, and from a decree granting that relief is this appeal. It was decreed by the court that, in so far as act 323 "directs and permits the Game and Fish Commission to regulate the season and manner in which deer may be taken in any part of the State less than the whole State is unconstitutional and void."
It is not questioned that act 323 authorizes and permits the Commission to promulgate the regulations complained of changing the seasons for taking fish and game and the manner of taking in the various counties. But it is insisted that so much of the act as confers this authority violates Amendment No. 14 to the Constitution, which prohibits the passage of local bills. The court below sustained that contention, and the correctness of this ruling is the question presented for decision.
The case of Special School District No. 60 v. Special School District No. 2,
We have a number of cases dealing with the subject of local legislation since the adoption of Amendment No. 14 prohibiting such legislation. That such legislation may not be enacted is not questioned. The question usually involved is whether the particular legislation under review is in fact local in character.
One of the most recent of these cases is that of Smith v. Cole,
In the case of Dupree v. State,
So, here, the rules promulgated by the Game and Fish Commission, applying to portions of the State less than the whole, were properly held to be void and of no effect. If the act 323, supra, did not authorize the promulgation of the rules here complained of, they would be void for that reason. If it does authorize these regulations, and we think it does, then there is an attempt to do indirectly what Amendment No. 14 provides may not be done directly, that is, to pass local game laws or other local legislation.
The court below therefore properly held so much of the regulations of the Game and Fish Commission as were local in character to be void and of no effect, and that decree is affirmed.