## Facts

- Wisconsin enacted a statute regulating watchmaking that required anyone practicing the trade to hold a certificate of registration.
- The statute conditioned certification on requirements including good moral character, completion of a four-year apprenticeship, and passing a practical examination.
- The Watchmaking Examining Board was empowered to administer the statute and adopt rules necessary to enforce it.
- Lyle C. Husar operated a watch-repair business in Brookfield, Wisconsin without the required certificate.
- The Board sued to enjoin Husar from practicing without certification; Husar admitted noncertification but challenged the statute as unconstitutional.
- The circuit court held the statute unconstitutional on due process and nondelegation grounds, and the Board appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether licensing and regulating watchmakers under the statute is a valid exercise of the state’s police power consistent with due process.
2. Whether the statute unlawfully delegates legislative authority to the Watchmaking Examining Board through its rulemaking and administration of certification standards.

## Decision

- The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed the circuit court.
- The court held the statute constitutional as a valid exercise of the police power.
- The court held the statute did not improperly delegate legislative power to the Board.

## Legal Principles

- Police-power legislation is presumed constitutional; the challenger bears a heavy burden, and the court asks only whether a reasonable basis exists for the enactment.
- Police power extends beyond health, safety, and morals to regulations reasonably directed at public welfare, convenience, and general prosperity, including consumer protection in economic affairs.
- Occupational licensing may be sustained where the legislature could reasonably find that competence and fraud-prevention concerns justify regulation.
- The legislature may delegate authority to an administrative agency to implement legislative policy and fill in details if the statute states the fundamental purpose and supplies standards and safeguards, with judicial review available to check arbitrary action.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Wisconsin’s watchmaking licensing statute because the legislature could reasonably conclude that regulating watch repair protects the public from incompetence and fraud, and because the statute set policy and core qualifications while permissibly delegating administrative details to the examining board subject to review.


Watchmaking Examining Board v. Husar, 49 Wis. 2d 526, 182 N.W.2d 257 (Wis. 1971)