32 



The cases of United States v. Grimaud, Carajous, and Inda, consolidated for consid- 

 eration by the Supreme Court, were criminal prosecutions for pasturing stock on the 

 Sierra National Forest, Cal., in violation of the regulations of the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture, which required all persons to secure a permit before grazing stock on a forest 

 reserve. The defendants demurred to the indictments on the ground that the act 

 of June 4, 1897, is unconstitutional in that it attempts to delegate to the Secretary of 

 Agriculture legislative power. The district court sustained the demurrers and the 

 United States prosecuted a writ of error direct to the Supreme Court. The substance 

 of the decision is as follows: 



1. The act of June 4, 1897 (30 Stat., 11), authorizing the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture to make such rules and regulations and establish such service as will 

 insure the objects of the national forests, namely, to regulate their occupancy and 

 use and to preserve the forests thereon from destruction, and prescribing punish- 

 ment for any violation of such rules and regulations, does not confer upon the 

 Secretary of Agriculture legislative power, but merely authorizes him to exer- 

 cise administrative functions in the management of the national forests, which, 

 because of the various and varying details of such management, can not be 

 provided in general regulations enacted by Congress, and the act is constitutional. 



2. The authority to make administrative rules is not a delegation of legislative 

 power, nor are such rules raised from an administrative to a legislative character 

 because the violation thereof is punishable as a public offense. 



3. Although there is no act of Congress which in express terms declares that it 

 shall be unlawful to graze sheep on a national forest, and although the act of June 

 4, 3897, provides that nothing therein shall prohibit any person from entering 

 such reservations for all proper and lawful purposes, such entry and use of the 

 reserves is subject to the proviso, also contained in the act, tha-t such persons 

 comply with the rules and regulations covering such reservations; and as the 

 act, not the Secretary of Agriculture, makes it an offense to violate such regula- 

 tions, the grazing of sheep on the reservations without complying with the regu- 

 lations of the Secretary of Agriculture, which require that a permit be obtained 

 before grazing sheep on the reservations, is unlawful and an indictable offense. 



4. The regulation promulgated by the Secretary of Agriculture on June 12, 1906, 

 providing that "all persons must secure permits before grazing any stock in a for- 

 est reserve, except the few head in actual use by prospectors, campers, and trav- 

 elers, and milch or work animals, not exceeding a total of six head, owned by bona 

 fide settlers residing in or near a forest reserve,^ which are excepted and require no 

 permit," is valid and enforceable, and a person who drives and grazes sheep upon 

 a national forest in violation of such regulations is making unlawful use of the 

 Government property and renders himself liable to the penalty imposed by Con- 

 gress. 



5. The Secretary of Agriculture has the power to impose a charge for the privi- 

 lege of grazing on the national forests. In addition to the general power conferred 

 by the act of June 4 ,1897, the act of February 1 , 1005, which declares " that all money 

 received from the sale of any products or the use of any land or resources of said forest 

 reserves shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States and for a period 

 of five years from the passage of this act shall constitute a special fund available, 

 until expended, as the Secretary of Agriculture may direct, for the protection, 

 administration, improvement, and extension of Federal forest reserves," and 

 also subsequent acts providing that money received from any source of forest- 

 reserve revenue shall be covered into the Treasury, and a part thereof turned over 

 to the States and Territories in which the national forests are located, to be 

 expended for public schools and roads, clearly indicate that Congress intended 

 that the Secretary of Agriculture might make charges out of which a revenue from 

 forest reserves was expected to arise. 



