Since the founding of the American republic, there has been a delicate balancing act among the legislative, executive and judicial branches over their respective constitutional powers. Each branch has jealously guarded its own sphere of influence, with the courts frequently serving as the arbiter of disputes between the executive and legislative branches.
The year 2012 marked the 25th anniversary of Boreali v. Axelrod, a major decision by New York’s Court of Appeals that voided an attempt by New York’s Public Health Council1 (PHC) to ban smoking in public places in the face of the Legislature’s enactment of only a limited ban on smoking. The case was not about the manifest health hazards of smoking and secondhand smoke, but about whether an administrative body could act on a matter of public policy when the Legislature had declined to do so. Even after 25 years, the Boreali decision is still an instructive and cautionary reminder of the limits of an administrative agency’s powers.
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