Essay on Inelligible Principle - 678 Words

The enactment of the Emergency Bubblegum Price Control Act represents a delegation of bubblegum price-setting power to the Price Administrator. Under the U.S. Constitution, Article I, the legislative powers of the federal government are vested in the U.S. Congress, however, the courts have recognized the congressional authority to obtain assistance from other branches of the government, providing that the legislature lay down by legislative act an intelligible principle to which the person or body authorized to fix such rates is directed to conform. Whitman v. Am. Trucking AssNs, 531 U.S. 457 (U.S. 2001), Loving v. United States, 517 U.S. 748 (U.S. 1996), citing Chief Justice Taft in J. W. Hampton, Jr., Co. v. United States, 276 U.S.†¦show more content†¦Which will effectuate the purposes of the Act has circular logic as the price setting is both the means and the purpose in itself. The only meaningful instruction is in his [the Price Administrators] judgment, which effecti vely gives the Administrator a free hand in setting the price maximums. The second prong of the test is easily met as the Act specifies which entity is authorized under this delegation, in this case the Price Administrator. However, there is insufficient information in the case at hand to determine whether the Price Administrator is an existing entity or a newly created agency, and if it is newly created, whether the Act specifies appointment of the officers and the supervision structure. The third prong is the boundaries of the delegated authority. In Mistretta, the Sentencing Commission was instructed to stay within the boundaries of the statutory maxima prescribed by existing statutes and by using a formula delineated in the enabling statute. Some prohibitions were also noted in the statute which further defined the boundaries of the Commissions authority. Again, in comparison, the Emergency Bubblegum Price Control Act has no such provisions. The Price Administrator is authorized to set the prices at whichever level he sees fit and at whatever time, in his judgment, the prices rise or threaten to rise to a level inconsistent with the purposes of the Act,