1690                                      VETOES

Letter from State Law Department on House Bill No. 1162

April 23, 1965.

The Honorable J. Millard Tawes
Governor of Maryland
State House
Annapolis, Maryland 21404

Re: House Bill No. 1162
Dear Governor Tawes:

As requested, I have reviewed House Bill No. 1162 as to form and
legal sufficiency.

House Bill 1162 provides that open seasons for the hunting of
doe shall be prohibited in Allegany, Garrett and Howard Counties,
unless authorization of such seasons by the Game and Inland Fish
Commission is concurred in by the Legislative Delegation for each
of those counties. Existing legislation authorizes the Commission to
prescribe antlerless deer seasons in each county throughout the
State. Section 132 (a), Code, Article 66C.

In my opinion this Bill is unconstitutional for several reasons.

In the first place, to require the concurrence of a county delega-
tion to an administrative action by the Game and Inland Fish Com-
mission violates Article 8 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights,
which Article provides:

"That the Legislative, Executive and Judicial powers of
Government ought to be forever separate and distinct from each
other; and no person exercising the functions of one of said
Departments shall assume or discharge the duties of any other."

House Bill 1162 requires the exercise by legislators in the afore-
said county delegations of judgment and discretion in executing a
law enacted by the Legislature, i.e., Section 132 (a), Article 66C of
the Code. The Legislature may enact, but it cannot execute laws.
That is the duty of the Executive Branch of the State government.
Book v. Commission, (Ind.) 149 N.E. 2d 273; Stockman v. Leddy,
(Colo.) 129 P. 220; Springer v. Government of the Philippine Islands,
277 U.S. 189, 72 L. Ed. 845; 16 C.J.S. Constitutional Law, Section 130;
11 Am. Jur., Constitutional Law, Section 187. The case of State v.
State Office Building Commission, (Kan.) 345 P.2d 674 held that if
the creation of a committee of legislators to perform duties that are
entirely within the executive department is not invalid, "then the
principle of separation of powers between the three departments of
the State Government does not exist under our Constitution" (P. 683).

In a case directly in point, Bramlett v. Stringer, 195 S.E. 257, the
Supreme Court of South Carolina held that a County Legislative
Delegation, which belongs to the Legislative Department of the
Government, cannot be appointed an executive body to carry out and
carry into effect laws passed by the Legislature, in the light of separa-
tion of powers guaranteed by Section 14, Article I of the South Caro-
lina Constitution. Section 14, Article I of the South Carolina Consti-
tution contains language identical to that in Article 8 of the Maryland
Declaration of Rights. See also 16 Corpus Juris Secundum, Con-
stitutional Law, Section 130, page 547.