Revised regulations for the government of the United States Marine-Hospital Service : approved May 20, 1889.
- Marine Hospital Service
- Date:
- 1889
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Revised regulations for the government of the United States Marine-Hospital Service : approved May 20, 1889. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![OPINION OF FIRST COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY DEPART MENT RELATIVE TO THE QUARANTINE ACT OF 1878. [Extract.] 1. When an act which repeals a prior act is itself only a temporary act, the general rule is that the prior law is revived after the tem- porary act expires by its own limitation. 2. Some provisions of the act of April 29, 1878 (20 Stat., 37), enti- tled “An act to prevent the introduction of contagious or infectious diseases into the United States,” were in terms “repealed” by an act with the same title, approved June 2, 1879 (21 Stat., 5-7); but sec-, tion 10 of the latter act declared that “this act shall not continue in force for a longer period than four years from the date of its appro- val.” Held, that in view of the language and purpose of said acts, the repealed provisions of the act of April 29, 1878 (20 Stat., 37), re- vived on June 2, 1883, and are now in force. When a repealing act expires by its own limitation, it cannot be said to be “repealed” within the meaning of section 12 of the Re- vised Statutes. This section, therefore, has no application to the acts of April 29, 1878, and June 2, 1879. The effect of the expiration of the act of June 2, 1879, is left to be controlled (i) by the legisla- tive intent, ascertained by the usual rules of construction, and (2) by common-law principles, so far as they are not modified by the circum- stances showing a different legislative intent. Common-law princi- ples unaffected by such circumstances generally give to the expiration of a repealing act the force which the common law assigns to an ex- press repeal of such repealing act. And the acts of April 29, 1878, and June 2, 1879, when read and considered together in connection with the purpose apparent therein, sufficiently show a legislative in- tent to revive the provisions of the act of April 29,1878, temporarily suspended by the act of June 2, 1879. Many of the unrepealed pro- visions of the act of April 29, 1878, require for their operative effect the agencies and powers found either in the suspended provision thereof or in the act of June 2, 1879. And it is wholly inadmissable to conceive that Congress intended that the main purposes provided for in the act of April 29,1878, which were not suspended or changed, should be either inefficient or practically inoperative, as they would be if both suspended provisions of this act of April 29, 1878, and the provisions of the act of June 2, 1879, all permanently ceased to be operative. (Lawrence, First Comptroller’s decision (1883), iv, 436- 442.)](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28716097_0123.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
