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things.
DELEGATE CASE: I don't think that is true, be-
cause you have overlooked the words "as limited by common
law."
In other words, you have the overriding restraint
on the General Assembly who would be the only party that
could define it; that they would have to be of the type
known in common law. These were very minor offenses.
For example, here is what I think you may be worried about:
If the General Assembly should say that larceny would be
a petty offense, this would undoubtedly be unconstitu-
tional, because larceny, even petty larceny, was defined
as not being a petty offense under the present Constitutior.
So the type or genre of these cases is set now by the commcn
law and by the use of those words it confines it to the very
remote, incidental, trifling little matters that
either now exist or might sometime in the future exist;
but in no event would the door be open to the thing that
I think is troubling you because of the use of the words
"common law."
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Vecera.