LEGAL ANALYSIS 55 



of investment of capital, or any requirement of individual operation. 



Except for (a), above, concerning the "buy-back." the general 

 impression is that such other matters will present only minor com- 

 plications if the control, taxes or fees, and the qualifications be kept 

 within reason. The "buy-back" problems have been explored to some 

 extent in preliminary work, but the results of that work have been 

 incorporated into the report only to indicate the nature of the prob- 

 lems involved. 



A. Introduction — The Presumption of Constitutionality 



The broad question presented for legal analysis in this project 

 is whether a legislatively-prescribed scheme for restricting the number 

 of commercial salmon fishermen in certain waters of the State of 

 Washington would be valid. The geographic area considered is that 

 primarily involving the sockeye salmon in their migratory path 

 through the Straits of Juan de Fuca and the waters inland from 

 there, as they head for the spawning grounds in the Fraser River 

 in Canada. The other aspects of this report, which present the 

 biological and economic considerations bearing upon the general 

 proposition, in general indicate that such a scheme is highly desirable. 



The legal analysis can describe the predicted constitutionality 

 of various alternative details of the scheme, even predicting better 

 success for some than for others. Further, it can put in understand- 

 able terms the relative importance of various factors which will enter 

 into a court's determination of the validity. 



The starting point is principally a point of view, a matter of 

 relative emphasis rather than of significant principle. It calls for 

 a recognition of the separation of powers and sympathy for and 

 indulgence toward the legislative process. In legal terminology this 

 attribute is the "presumption of constitutionality which attaches to 

 the enactments of the legislature.*' In more lay terms, we would ^cW 

 that the reviewing court must be shown some constitutional infirmity 

 in the enactment, not that the legislation must affirmatively be jus- 

 tified. "It must be borne in mind that the state constitution is not 

 a grant, but a restriction on the law-making power, and the power 

 of the legislature to enact all reasonable laws is unrestrained except 

 where, either expressly or by fair inference, it is prohibited by the 

 state and federal constitutions. Where the validity of a statute is 

 assailed, there is a presumption of the constitutionality of the legis- 



