ARMY REGULATIONS. The Consti tution of the United States provides that °Con gress shall have power to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.° The only acts of Congress in force, authorizing the President to make regu lations better defining the powers and duties of officers, are contained in the 5th section of the act of 3 March 1913, and the 9th section of the act approved 26 April 1816. The first of these acts is an act for the better organization of the General Staff of the army, and the sec ond relates (with the exception of the last section) to the same subject.
The words regulate and regulation are used in several places in the Constitution of the United States. Thus, Congress has power to *regulate" commerce, to 'regulate° the value of money, to make rules for the government and 'regulation° of the land and naval forces, to make 'regulations° with regard to the elections of senators and representatives, to make "regulations° with reference to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, in certain cases, and to make needful rules and 'regulations° respect ing the territory and other property of the United States. In all these cases regulation is legislation.
By virtue of its power to make rules and regulations for the land and naval forces, Con gress covers a large field of legislation relating to the administration of military affairs. When this is done there still remains a mass of mat ters appertaining to the military establishment, which it is necessary to "regulate.° Legislation cannot enter into all the details of this regula tion, and, if it could, it would not be desirable, because a legislative code controlling the whole subject of military administration would not have the necessary elasticity. The Constitu tion provides a way of supplementing this power of Congress, the President, as executive and commander-in-chief of the army, having the power to make regulations for its govern ment.
The regulations for the transaction of the public duties and business relating to the mili tary establishment, adopted by the President in the exercise of this power, are designated as the army regulations. They may be divided
into several classes, viz.: 1. Those which have received the sanction of Congress. These cannot be altered, nor can exceptions to them be made by the execu tive authority unless the regulations themselves provide for it. In reality, the approval of Con gress makes them legislative regulations, and they might, therefore, be more strictly classified with other statutory regulations with reference to subjects of military administration. They are, however, included under the general head of army regulations, as approved codes of executive regulations.
2. Those that are made pursuant to, or in execution of, a statute—meaning by the latter expression those that are supplemental to particular statutes, and, in the absence of suf ficient legislative regulation, prescribe means for carrying them out. These, if it be not pro hibited by the statute, may be modified by the executive authority, but until this is done they are binding as well on the authority that made them as on others. It has been held that a regulation of the Treasury Department, made in pursuance of an act of Congress, °becomes a part of the law, and of as binding force as if incorporated in the body of the act itself.° So it has been held that the civil service rules, promulgated under the Civil Service Act, 'be came a part of the law,° and that removal from a position placed under the act and the rules can only be made agreeably to the terms and provisions of both the act and the rules, and an army regulation made pursuant to a pro vision contained in an act of Congress is of the same force. Examples of regulations of this class are those relating to the examination of enlisted men for commissions, under the act of Congress of 30 July 1892, and the executive order of 30 March 1898, prescribing limits of punishment.