Police power

[Sarah]

The inherent power of a government to regulate its policeaffairs. The term police power is not definitely fixed in meaning. Inthe earlier cases in the United States it was used as including thewhole power of internal government, or the powers of governmentinherent in every sovereignty to the extent of its dominions (11Peters (U. S.) 102). The later cases have excepted from its domainthe development and administration of private law. Modern politicalscience defines the power as a branch of internal administration inthe exercise of which the executive should move within the lines ofgeneral principles prescribed by the constitution or the legislature,and in the exercise of which the most local governmentalorganizations should participate as far as possible (Burgess). Underthis limitation the police power, as affecting persons, is the powerof the state to protect the public against the abuse of individualliberty, that is, to restrain the individual in the exercise of hisrights when such exercise becomes a danger to the community. Thetendency of judicial and popular usage is towards this narrowerdefinition.