CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - EMERGENCY BANKING ACT - DELEGATION OF POWER

Authors

Abstract

Defendant was indicted in two counts: (1) for failure to file a return in respect to gold bullion held by him, and (2) for holding over $200,- 000 in gold bullion without a license, in violation of the Presidential Order of August 28, 1933, issued by authority of the Emergency Banking Act of March 9, 1933. This Act declared an emergency to exist, by Title I, sec. 2 amended the Trading with the Enemy Act by authorizing the President "during time of war or during any other period of national emergency declared" by him to regulate or prohibit (inter alia) the "hording" of gold bullion, and by sec. 3 amended the Federal Reserve Act by authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury whenever in his judgment "necessary to protect the currency system of the United States" to require the surrender (inter alia) of all gold bullion in return for an equivalent amount of lawful money of the United States. The court overruled defendant's demurrer to the first count and sustained it as to the second count, holding that the Act was constitutional, that the portion of the executive order requiring the filing of returns was authorized, but that the portion of the order requiring the surrender of gold bullion was not thus authorized, since only the Secretary of the Treasury was given this power. United States v. Campbell, D. C. S. D. N. Y., November 16, 1933; U.S. LAW WEEK, November 21, 1933, index p. 198.

Recommended Citation

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - EMERGENCY BANKING ACT - DELEGATION OF POWER, 32 Mich. L. Rev. 405 (1934).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol32/iss3/13