United States v. Alterman

70 F. Supp. 734, 1947 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2848
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedFebruary 26, 1947
DocketNo. 6928
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 70 F. Supp. 734 (United States v. Alterman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Alterman, 70 F. Supp. 734, 1947 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2848 (S.D. Fla. 1947).

Opinion

RUSSELL, District Judge.

By a pleading designated as a motion to quash, which is considered as a motion to dismiss, the defendant challenges the validity of each and all of the ten counts of an information charging him with specified violations of the regulations issued pursuant to the Second War Powers Act of 1942, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 631 et seq., and the Veterans’ Plousing Act of May 22, 1946, Public Law No. 388, 79th Congress, 2nd Session, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 1821 et seq., and specifically Priority Regulation 33, as amended. The application for priority rating is alleged to have been made by the defendant prior to April 17, 1946, and the defendant contends that prior to the Act of May 22, 1946, known as the Veterans’ Emergency Housing Act of 1946, there was no Act of Congress authorizing the regulations issued as Priority Regulation 33, and as amended, which authorized their promulgation and terms as relates to Veterans preference in housing accommodations constructed thereunder. The argument is chiefly predicated upon the proposition that each of the Acts authorizing the system of allocations and priorities all relate to the prosecution of the war so that they are now not in force or applicable. This argument is not sound.

While determination of the various measures by which the grant of the power of allocation and priorities was made by Congress may require some examination of the authorities, when this is done the power of succession and delegation is clear. It flows primarily from the provisions of Title 3, headed “Priorities Powers”, section 2(a), Second Was' Powers Act, 56 Statutes 176, and the Acts amendatory thereof, by which amendments The Congress extended, even after the termination of actual hostilities, the continuance in force of the provisions of Title 3, supra, of the Second War Powers Act until June 30, 1946, 59 Statutes 658, and, even later, 60 Statutes 345, until March 31, 1947, with the expressed provision, however, that “(except that for purposes of allocations of building materials, and facilities related to the utilization of building materials, such title III, and the amendments to existing law made by such title, shall remain in force until June 30, 1947), or until such earlier time as the two Houses of Congress by concurrent resolution, or the President, may designate, * * A” 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 645. This course of legislation, some passed during the period of actual fighting, and some after the end of hostilities, but all prior to the actual termination of the war, discloses clear Congressional construction of the validity of the exercise of the powers under such provisions of the statute during the time in which the defendant is alleged to have violated the cited Priority Regulations.

In addition to such Congressional recognition, it is of course well established law that the actual cessation of hostilities does not remove the power of the exercise of authority granted by war legislation. Hamilton v. Kentucky Distilleries & Warehouse Co., 251 U.S. 146, 40 S.Ct. 106, 64 L.Ed. 194; Ruppert v. Caffey, 251 U.S. 264, 40 S.Ct. 141, 64 L.Ed. 260. There [737]*737is thus both Congressional and Judicial authority in opposition to the contention of the defendant that the Act upon which the regulations now attacked are sought to be based all related to the prosecution of the war, and therefore could not, at the time in question, validly support the provisions of the regulations.

When examination is made of the line of succession of the Governmental agencies promulgating and enforcing from time to time the power granted to the President by the provisions of the Second War Powers Act, as amended, supra, no illegitimacy is apparent. The First War Powers Act, 55 Statutes 838, 50 U.S.C.A. Appendix, § 601 et seq., authorizes the coordination of the Executive Bureaus in the interest of the more efficient concentration of the Government. Acting thereunder, the President by Executive Order, Jan. 7, 1941, No. 8629 established the Office of Production Management, Code of Federal Regulations, Cumulative Supplement, book 1, page 852, and specifically delegated to such Office the power of the determination of the “priorities” provided in section 2(a) of the Act of June 28, 1940, 54 Statutes 676. This was continued and enlarged by Executive Order, Aug. 28, 1941, No. 8875, Code of Federal Regulations, Cumulative Supplement, Book 1, page 993, and, such power thereafter delegated to the War Production Board, Executive Order Jan. 16, 1942, No. 9024, Code of Federal Regulations, Cumulative Supplement, book 1, page 1079.

By Executive Order 9599, 50 U.S.C.A. Appendix, § 1651 note, Code of Federal Regulations, 1945, Title 3, page 104, predicated upon the authority granted by, among others, the First War Powers Act of 1940, and the Second War Powers Act of 1942, as amended, the War Production Board was directed to use all “of its authorized powers to * * * grant priority assistance to break bottlenecks which would impede the reconversion process,” in addition to other ends thereby desired to be secured. By Executive Order 9638, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 601 note, Code of Federal Regulations, 1945, Title 3, page 125, the War Production Board was abolished and its powers and functions transferred to the Civilian Production Administration, which was directed to utilize its powers to also “grant priority assistance.” Acting under these authorities, Priorities Regulation 33 was issued on the 20th day of December, 1945, 10 Federal Register, page 15301, and amended January 11, 1946, 11 Federal Register 601, and on April 12, 1946, 11 Federal Register 4085. Some question may arise as to whether the amendment of April 12, 1946 may be applied to the obligations imposed upon the defendant by his application for HH priority dated April 9, 1946, but granted April 17, 1946. However, as will be shown hereafter, it is not thought that this question will affect the substance of the information.

It is thus clear that both by Statute and by regulations, there is undoubted legal authority to give general support to provisions of Priorities Regulation 33 unless it be that prior to the Act of May 22, 1946, there was no authority stemming from the legislation or the regulations authorizing the grant of preference to veterans of World War II. In the first place, the grant of preference to veterans of the war which has not yet officially terminated, is in a very real sense both “necessary” and supremely “appropriate” in the public interest. Such a preference may be also accurately said to “promote the national defense.” While, as stated, we are blessed with peace at the moment, we have a large force now under arms stationed in occupied countries of our legal enemies, and also at home. Even the selection of men for the Armed Forces under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, 50 U.S. C.A.Appendix, § 301 et seq., is still legally in force, and the actual operation thereunder respited at the present time only by a satisfactory volume of voluntary enlistments. No Court, with proper regard for mature judicial conviction, could declare that, in the present unsettled state of affairs in the world, the necessity for remobilization (which God forbid), may not arise. In addition, under our system of government, this is a need which is better known to the other coordinate branches which have both expressed the firm conviction [738]

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Bluebook (online)
70 F. Supp. 734, 1947 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2848, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-alterman-flsd-1947.