The Great Hunter’s License Fiasco
A Spokane judge strikes down a state hunting law, labeling it a 'fearful and wonderful piece of work' riddled with drafting errors.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Judge Belt of the Spokane county superior court yesterday declared the law passed by the recent legislature requiring all hunters to take out a license to be unconstitutional. The judge pronounced the act 'a fearful and wonderful piece of work.' The decision was rendered on the application of Charles Anderson, who was arrested in Hillyard for hunting without a license. The judge noted that the legislature’s title claimed to 'repeal' a section while the body of the act claimed to 'amend' it, and further, the act referenced the wrong chapter—confusing hunter licenses with the 'plotting of irregular tracts of land.' Concluding that the legislature created a void and contradictory act, the judge ordered the defendant discharged.
“Viewed from any standpoint it is a fearful and wonderful piece of work.”
This 1903 legal disaster mirrors modern legislative challenges, where complex administrative codes often suffer from clerical errors that result in major judicial pushback. It serves as a reminder that the messy business of rule-making and bureaucratic oversight has always been prone to the same procedural pitfalls that delay or invalidate policy today.
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