Cases Dealing with the Necessity for Delegated Authority-This
file contains a list of cases regarding the need of public officers
and employees to have delegated authority.
Delegation of Authority Brief-This
brief, taken from a larger one, addresses the requirement that public
officers and employees must have delegated authority to act.
According to the U.S. Dept of Treasury, Robert T. Harper in
a letter dated June 28, 1991:
(see Irwin
Schiff's Federal Mafia book, page 264, ISBN 0-930374-09-6 available
from http://www.paynoincometax.com
for a copy of the letter):
Delegation of authority orders authorizing
Internal Revenue Service employees to perform specific duties or
activities need not be published in the Federal Register.
See United States v. McCall, SCR No. 89-15
(N.D. Ind., January 4, 1990) or Hogg v. United States,
428 F.2d 274 (6th Cir. 1970), cert denied 401 U.S. 910 (1971).
When Treasury Orders are published in the Federal Register, this
is generally done for the convenience of the public rather than
pursuant to any legal requirement.
There is no legal requirement to publish
delegation orders internal to the Dept. of Treasury in the Federal
Register. It is the official Dept. of Treasury view that the
current Treasury Order 150-10 delegates responsibility, and all
necessary authority, to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue
Service to administer and enforce the Internal Revenue Laws.
Sections 7801 and 7802 of the Internal Revenue Code expressly provide
authority for the Delegation Orders of the Commissioner of Internal
Revenue.
The records maintained by the Office of
Management Support Systems, which manages the Treasury Orders and
Directives System, do not indicate whether Treasury Order 150-10
has been filed with the Federal Register in 1982. However,
this order would not have to be published in the Federal Register
because there is no legal requirement to publish internal delegation
orders in the Federal Register.
Nemo dat qui non habet. No one can give who does not possess.
Jenk. Cent. 250.
Nemo plus juris ad alienum transfere potest, quam ispe habent.
One cannot transfer to another a right which he has not. Dig. 50,
17, 54; 10 Pet. 161, 175.
Nemo potest facere per alium quod per se non potest. No one can
do that by another which he cannot do by himself.
Qui per alium facit per seipsum facere videtur. He who does anything
through another, is considered as doing it himself. Co. Litt. 258.
Quicpuid acquiritur servo, acquiritur domino. Whatever is acquired
by the servant, is acquired for the master. 15 Bin. Ab. 327.
Quod per me non possum, nec per alium. What I cannot do in person,
I cannot do by proxy. 4 Co. 24.
What a man cannot transfer, he cannot bind by articles.
State ex re. Richards v. Moorer, 153 S.C. 455 (1929)
It is a primary principle that in our system of government the legislative, executive, and judicial departments must be kept separate and independent. With regard to the rule that HN5 the Legislature cannot delegate its power to make laws, the following from Cooley's Constitutional Limitations is quoted with approval in Vesta Mills v. City Council, 60 S.C. 1, 38 S.E. 226, 228: "'One of the settled maxims in constitutional law is that the power conferred upon the legislature to make laws cannot be delegated by that department to any other body or authority. Where the sovereign power of the State has located the authority, there it must remain; and by the constitutional agency alone the laws must be made, until the constitution itself is changed. The power to whose judgment, wisdom, and patriotism this high prerogative has been intrusted cannot relieve itself of the responsibility by choosing other agencies upon which the power shall be devolved; nor can it substitute [***17] the judgment, wisdom, and patriotism of any other body for those for which alone the people have seen fit to confide this sovereign trust.'"
There is a distinction, however, between delegating power to make a law and conferring authority or discretion as to its execution. If a legislative Act is clothed with all the forms of law and is complete in itself in form and substance, if the officer, board, or commission to whom the authority is alleged to have been delegated is given no power to add to or to take away from the law as enacted, if nothing is left to discretion as to what shall constitute the form and substance of the statute, and if the Act embodies a full and complete expression of the legislative will, matters which may be fairly regarded as relating to the administration and execution of the statute, even though involving discretion, do not constitute an unauthorized delegation of legislative authority.
[State ex re. Richards v. Moorer, 153 S.C. 455 (1929)]
"The question is not what power the
federal government ought to have, but what powers, in fact, have
been given by the people... The federal union is a government
of delegated powers. It has only such as are expressly conferred
upon it, and such as are reasonably to be implied from those granted.
In this respect, we differ radically from nations where all legislative
power, without restriction or limitation, is vested in a parliament
or other legislative body subject to no restriction except the discretion
of its members." (Congress)
[U.S.
v. William M. Butler, 297 U.S. 1 (1936)]
Carillo v. U.S., No. Case No. CV-S-02-0353-KJD-(LRL) (D.Nev.
03/12/2003)
"Plaintiff repeatedly argues that letters
and notices the IRS sent as well as determinations and assessments
made by the IRS are invalid because there is no evidence of any
delegated authority from the Secretary of Treasury to the various
IRS employees. Relevant statutes and regulations demonstrate, however,
that the Secretary does have the power to collect taxes, and that
such power can be delegated to local IRS agents. 26 U.S.C. § 6301
provides that "[t]he Secretary shall collect the taxes imposed by
the internal revenue laws." The actual task of collecting the taxes,
however, has been delegated to local IRS directors. See 26 C.F.R.
§ 301.6301-1 ("The taxes imposed by the internal revenue laws shall
be collected by district directors of internal revenue."). The delegation
of authority down the chain of command, from the Secretary, to the
Commissioner of Internal Revenue, to local IRS employees constitutes
a valid delegation by the Secretary to the Commissioner, and a re-delegation
by the Commissioner to the delegated officers and employees. See
26 U.S.C. §7701
(a)(11)(A), (12)(A)(i); 26 C.F.R. §301.7701-9;
Hughes v. United
States, 953 F.2d
531, 536 (9th Cir. 1992)."
[Carillo v. U.S., No. Case No. CV-S-02-0353-KJD-(LRL) (D.Nev.
03/12/2003)]