Permissible Delegations Conflict Authority.

Conflict Between State or Federal Statutes and Delegated Authority.

A rule or regulation properly promulgated under authority received from Congress is law, and under the supremacy clause of the Constitution can preempt state law.1 Further, in exercising a delegated power, the President or another officer may effectively suspend or rescind a law passed by Congress. Early cases sustained contingency legislation giving the President power, upon the finding of certain facts, to revive or suspend a law,2 and the President's power to raise or lower tariff rates equipped him to alter statutory law.3 The Court in Opp Cotton Mills v. Administrator 4 upheld Congress's decision to delegate to the Wage and Hour Administrator of the Labor Department the authority to establish a minimum wage in particular industries greater than the statutory minimum but no higher than a prescribed figure. Congress has not often expressly addressed the issue of repeals or supersessions, but in authorizing the Supreme Court to promulgate rules of civil and criminal procedure and of evidence it directed that such rules supersede previously enacted statutes with which they conflict.5

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References

This text about Permissible Delegations Conflict Authority. is based on “The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation”, published by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

[Footnote 1] City of New York v. FCC, 486 U.S. 57, 63-64 (1988); Louisiana PSC v. FCC, 476 U.S. 355, 368-69 (1986); Fidelity Fed. Savings & Loan Ass'n v. de la Cuesta, 458 U.S. 141, 153-54 (1982).

[Footnote 2] E.g., The Brig Aurora, 11 U.S. (7 Cr.) 382 (1813).

[Footnote 3] E.g., J. W. Hampton, Jr. & Co. v. United States, 276 U.S. 394 (1928); Field v. Clark, 143 U.S. 649 (1892).

[Footnote 4] 312 U.S. 126 (1941).

[Footnote 5] See 28 U.S.C. § 2072. In Davis v. United States, 411 U.S. 233, 241 (1973), the Court referred in passing to the supersession of statutes without evincing any doubts about the validity of the results. When Congress amended the Rules Enabling Acts in the 100th Congress, Pub. L. 100-702, 102 Stat. 4642, 4648, amending 28 U.S.C. § 2072, the House would have altered supersession, but the Senate disagreed, the House acquiesced, and the old provision remained. See H.R. 4807, H. REP. NO. 100-889, 100th Cong., 2d sess. (1988), 27-29; 134 CONG REC. 23573-84 (1988), id. at 31051-52 (Sen. Heflin); id. at 31872 (Rep. Kastenmeier).

Tables of Contents

• Permissible Delegations Conflict Authority. and other Topics in the Contents – Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution
• U.S. Constitutional Law Category
• List of amendments to the U.S. Constitution
• Permissible Delegations Conflict Authority. and other Topics in the Constitution Contents
• Interpretation of the U.S. Constitution (Table of Contents)
• Clauses of the Constitution (Table of Contents)