Case of West Philadelphia
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
THIS was a certiorari to the Court of Quarter Sessions of Philadelphia county, to which- the following petition was presented by Joseph Leman and twenty others: “ The petition of the undersigned freeholders, residing in the eastern section of Blocldey township, including West Philadelphia, Hamilton Village, Greenville and Powelton, and within the limits comprised in the accompanying plot or draft, bounded as therein described, viz.: Beginning at the mouth of Mill Creek on…
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THIS was a certiorari to the Court of Quarter Sessions of Philadelphia county, to which- the following petition was presented by Joseph Leman and twenty others: “ The petition of the undersigned freeholders, residing in the eastern section of Blocldey township, including West Philadelphia, Hamilton Village, Greenville and Powelton, and within the limits comprised in the accompanying plot or draft, bounded as therein described, viz.: Beginning at the mouth of Mill Creek on the river Schuylkill, thence up the said creek to the Darby or Chester road, thence along said road to the western…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Gibson, C. J.
Under a well-balanced constitution, the legislature can no more delegate its proper function than can the judiciary. It is on the preservation of the lines which separate the cardinal branches of the government, that the liberties of the citizen depend; for a consolidated sovereignty, in whatever form, is a despotism in so far as it subjects the governed, not to prescribed rules of action, to which he may safely square his conduct before-hand, but to the unsettled will of the ruling'power, which cannot be foreseen; and a government becomes…
2Cited by26 opinions
- Bell Tel. Co. of Pa. v. DriscollSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1941
- Vestal v. Little RockSupreme Court of Arkansas · 1891
- People ex rel. Shumway v. BennettMichigan Supreme Court · 1874
- State ex rel. Town of Holland v. LammersWisconsin Supreme Court · 1902
- Pittsburg's AppealSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1875
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