Commonwealth v. Bellis

I do not believe the City of Philadelphia has the authority, under the home rule provisions of the First Class Cities Code, to prescribe punishment for conduct which was punishable as a misdemeanor under the general common law. Instead, I believe the General Assembly has delegated to Philadelphia only the power to establish and punish summary offenses and those misdemeanors which describe minor criminal conduct of parochial concern to that municipality and not to the Commonwealth as a whole. See Commonwealth v. Cabell, 199 Pa.Superior Ct. 513, 185 A.2d 611 (1962). I also believe that the…