“ Department and Agency Action In addition to the fundamental principles set forth in Section 3, Executive departments and agencies shall adhere, to the extent permitted by law, to the following criteria when implementing policies that have takings implications: (a) When an Executive department or agency requires a private party to obtain a permit in order to undertake a specific use of, or action with respect to, private property, any conditions imposed on the granting of a permit shall: (1) Serve the same purpose that would have been served by a prohibition of the use or action ”
Permit
Definition and stakes
A permit is an authorization that allows specific activities, often eliminating legal or administrative obstacles. Whether in governmental regulations or individual stories, the concept appears in a wide range of contexts. Legal systems, such as U.S. executive orders and legislative laws, define permits as instruments for managing land use and ensuring adherence to rules, while literary passages emphasize their bureaucratic inflexibility, as illustrated in stories about strict licensing or the difficulties of dealing with permit procedures.
Writers such as Arthur M. Lewis and Joseph Heco highlight both the practical challenges and the importance of official approvals in governance and everyday life. The theme ultimately reveals a conflict between regulatory oversight and the promotion of sanctioned action.
Quotes about “permit”
Harry Alverson Franck,
Roaming Through the West Indies
“ One must have a permit to make the slightest alterations in house or office. An American who had secured a permission to paint his house was threatened with arrest for adding a second coat without another permit, and forced to “fix it up.” ”
James Champlin Fernald,
English Synonyms and Antonyms
“ There are establishments that any one will be allowed to visit without challenge or hindrance; there are others that no one is allowed to visit without a permit from the manager; there are others to which visitors are admitted at specified times, without a formal permit. We allow a child's innocent intrusion; we concede a right; grant a request; consent to a sale of property; permit an inspection of accounts; sanction a marriage; tolerate the rudeness of a well-meaning servant ”
Arthur M. Lewis, The Art of Lecturing
“ The permit system is all right if it does not keep you from the corners you wish to use. If it does, the best thing is to fight it out for a new arrangement or the right to hold your meetings without arrangements. If you conduct your case properly the public will be overwhelmingly on your side. ”
Joseph Heco,
The narrative of a Japanese; what he has seen and the people he has met in the course of the last forty years…
(1895)
“ If any person should go abroad without a proper permit from the Government he shall be punished severely. Let everybody understand this order and observe the regulations issued and circulated to those whom it may concern, even to the commonest subjects, in order that any person who wishes to go abroad may make proper application. ”
William J. Brennan, Jr., Walker v. City of Birmingham — Dissent
“ The most striking examples of the right to speak first and challenge later, and of peculiar moment for the present case, are the cases concerning the ability of an individual to challenge a permit or licensing statute giving broad discretion to an individual or group, such as the Birmingham permit ordinance, despite the fact that he dd not attempt to obtain a permit or license. ”
May Kellogg Sullivan, A Woman who went to Alaska
“ With such a license it is unlawful to sell a stick of wood for any purpose, or a pound of fish or game." The law is strictly enforced. To do anything, one must have a special permit, and for every such permit he must pay roundly. ”
United States. Congress, United States Statutes at Large (1845)
“ And every permit granted by such collector and naval officer, where any, for the unlading of said spirits, wines or teas, or any part thereof, shall, previous to such landing or unlading thereof, be produced to the said officer of inspection, who shall record or register in proper books the contents thereof, and shall endorse thereupon the word, “Inspected,” the time when, and his own name; after which he shall return the said permit to the person by whom it shall have been produced, and then, and not otherwise, it shall be lawful to land the spirits, wines or teas therein specified ”
Mark Warner,
RESTRICT Act
(2023)
“ No person may cause or aid, abet, counsel, command, induce, procure, permit, or approve the doing of any act prohibited by, or the omission of any act required by any regulation, order, direction, mitigation measure, prohibition, or other authorization or directive issued under, this Act. ”
B. E. Fernow, A Brief History of Forestry
“ The prevalent systems, however, are the permit system, when a permit is issued indicating the amount to be cut and the price to be paid for the same, and the contract system, when the work is more or less under the control of government officers and the material remains government property until paid for. ”
Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004…
“ Licenses and Permits.— If any person holds a license, certificate, or other permit issued by any responding party evidencing the meeting of qualifications for professional, mechanical, or other skills and assistance is requested by a receiving jurisdiction, such person will be deemed licensed, certified, or permitted by the receiving jurisdiction to render aid involving such skill to meet a public service event, emergency or training for any such events. ”
Harold Hitz Burton,
First Iowa Hydro-Electric Cooperative v…
“ If a State permit is not required, there is no justification for requiring the petitioner, as a condition of securing its federal permit, to present evidence of the petit oner's compliance with the requirements of the State Code for a State permit. Compliance with State requirements that are in conflict with federal requirements may well block the federal license. ”
George Sutherland, New State Ice Company v. Liebmann…
“ If this legislative restriction be within the constitutional power of the state Legislature, it follows that the license or permit, issued to appellant, constitutes a franchise, to which a court of equity will afford protection against one who seeks to carry on the same business without obtaining from the commission a license or permit to do so. ”
New Jersey Legislature, New Jersey Pamphlet Laws of 1977… (1977)
“ At all times, to maintain in good working order and operate as effectively as possible, any facilities or systems of control installed to achieve compliance with the terms and conditions of the permit. g. The commissioner shall have a right of entry to all premises in which a discharge source is or might be located or in which monitoring equipment or records required by a permit are kept, for purposes of inspection, sampling, copying or photographing. ”
Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Chemical Weapons (2003)
“ A permit holder who, without reasonable excuse, contravenes a condition to which a permit is subject commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine at level 6 and to imprisonment for 1 year. ”
George Sutherland, Brownlow v. Schwartz — Opinion of the Court
“ Because the permit, the issuance of which constituted the sole relief sought by petitioner, has been issued and the building to which it related has been completed; and (2) because, the first reason aside, petitioner no longer has an interest in the building, and therefore has no basis for maintaining the action. ”
Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance 1966 (1966)
“ Where any Ordinance confers power upon any person to issue, grant, give or renew any licence, Crown lease, authority, approval or permit, the person so empowered shall have a discretion either to issue, grant, give or renew or to refuse to issue, grant, give or renew such licence, Crown lease, authority, approval or permit. ”
John Marshall Harlan II,
Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham…
“ The Court answers that a citizen is entitled to rely on the statutory construction adopted by the state officials who are on the front line, administering the permit scheme. If these officials construe a vague statute unconstitutionally, the citizen may take them at their word, and act on the assumption that the statute is void. ”
Charter of Virginia, 1611 (1611)
“ Therefore, Our Will and Pleasure is, that in any Suit or Suits commenced, or to be commenced in any of our Courts at Westminister, or elsewhere, by the said Treasurer and Company, or otherwise against any such persons, that our Judges for the Time being, both in our Court of Chancery, and at the Common Pleas do favour and further the said Suits so far forth as Law and Equity will in any wise further and permit. ”
“ The Secretary of State shall issue or deny the permit in accordance with the proposed determination unless, within 15 days after notification pursuant to paragraphs (g) or (h) of this section, an official required to be consulted under paragraph (b) (ii) of this section shall notify the Secretary of State that he or she disagrees with the Secretary's proposed determination and requests the Secretary to refer the application to the President. ”
“ The prohibitions in subsections (a) and (b) of this section apply except to the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the effective date of this order. Section 4. Sanctions. ”
Owen J. Roberts, Porter v. Investors' Syndicate…
“ We are of opinion that the appellee failed to exhaust its administrative remedy before applying to the District Court for injunctive relief. The granting and revocation of permits is an exercise by the appellant of delegated legislative power. ”
by the Government of New Jersey, New Jersey Statutes Annotated
“ Acting under unconstitutional, invalid or inapplicable laws § 59:3-5. Adoption or failure to adopt or enforce any law § 59:3-6. Issuance, denial, suspension or revocation of permit, license, etc § 59:3-7. ”
Hugo Black,
Rosenberg v. Yee Chien Woo — Opinion of the Court
“ In 1965 respondent's wife and son obtained temporary visitor's permits and joined him in this country. By 1966 all three had overstayed their permits and were no longer authorized to remain in this country. ”
William R. Day,
New York ex rel. Lieberman v. Van De Carr…
“ We do not so understand the decision of the highest court of New York. As we read it, the authority sustained is the grant of power to issue or withhold permits in the honest exercise of a reasonable discretion. ”
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Speeches and Writings of M. K. Gandhi (1922)
“ Boys with their parents or without are required to take out permits. (c) Men with old £3 registrations coming into the country without permits are, though refugees being sent away and required to make formal application. ”
William Strong, Butler v. Maples — Opinion of the Court
“ Weed, #fn-s-s [1] this court said, 'The fact that the proper officers issued these permits for certain parishes, must be taken as evidence that they were properly issued until the contrary is established.' But a prim a facie case, with nothing to rebut it, is a case made out. ”
William O. Douglas,
Travis v. United States (364 U.S. 631…
“ Provided its language permits, the Act in question should be given that construction which will respect such considerations.' United States v. Cores, 356 U.S. 405, 407, 78 S.Ct. 875, 877, 2 L.Ed.2d 873. ”
Edmund Burke,
Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America
“ Permit me, Sir, to add another circumstance in our Colonies which contributes no mean part towards the growth and effect of this untractable spirit. I mean their education. In no country perhaps in the world is the law so general a study. The profession itself is numerous and powerful; and in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of the deputies sent to the Congress were lawyers. But all who read, and most do read, endeavor to obtain some smattering in that science. ”
Albert Frederick Calvert,
Nigeria and its tin fields
(1910)
“ No officer, whether civil or military, shall, while in the service of the Government of the Protectorate, acquire or hold any right or interest under any prospecting right, licence to prospect, or mining lease, and any licence or lease purporting to confer any such right or interest on any such officer shall be null and void. ”
Earl Warren,
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka…
(1955)
“ All provisions of federal, state, or local law requiring or permitting such discrimination must yield to this principle. ”
Mohandas K. Gandhi, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi
“ Any person who shall carry on any wholesale or retail trade or business without a Licence, or who shall allow Licensed premises to be in a condition which would disentitle him to a Licence, shall be deemed to have contravened this Act, and shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds sterling for each offence, to be recovered in the Court of the Magistrate by the Clerk of the Peace, or if the contravention is within a Borough or Township, by an officer appointed by the Town Council or Town Board. ”
George Ogilvy Preshaw, Banking Under Difficulties (1888)
“ Someone had frightened the little fellow into the belief that if he had not a license the “traps” (police) would be after him, and in the simplicity of his heart he said to the commissioner, “Have boys to get licenses, sir?” “What do you do, my lad?” “Keep my father’s tent.” “But don’t you rock the cradle now and then?” “Yes,” said he. “Then you must have a license. What’s your name? Here’s your license. ”
The Spirella Company, Spirella Manual (1913)
“ When a demand for license is made you should at once call upon the mayor of the town or city, or, if you are at work in the country, upon the sheriff or other proper officer, and call his attention to these decisions of the Supreme Court, and ask protection under them. ”
Nathan Clifford, State Tonnage Tax Cases Cox v. Collector Trade Company…
“ Evidently the word license, as used in that act, as the court say in that case, means permission or authority, and it is equally clear that a license to do any particular thing is a permission or authority to do that thing, and if granted by a person having power to grant it, that it transfers to the grantee the right to do whatever it purports to authorize. ”
S. A. Reilly, Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years…
“ Proclamation at four court terms of a levy of a fine shall be a final end to an issue of land, tenements, or other hereditaments and the decision shall bind persons and their heirs, whether they have knowledge or not of the decision, except for women in covert [under the protection of a husband] who were not parties, persons under the age of twenty-one, in prison, out of the nation, or not of whole mind, who are not parties. ”
John Westlake,
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
(1911)
“ They meet us again when we inquire in what territory, or by virtue of what territorial law, a particular alleged right has accrued. Persons belonging by domicile or nationality to A enter in B into a contract to be performed in C; where and by virtue of what law does either acquire a right against the other? Is it to be in or by the law of their homes, where they are normally, though not always necessarily, to be sued? Or of the country where they contract, which for various purposes, as those of police, but not for all purposes, has the control of them when they contract? ”
Melville Fuller,
Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York v…
“ The change from the drawing in question of the construction of a clause of the Constitution, or of a treaty, statute, or commission, to the claim of a right under the Constitution, treaty, statute, commission, or authority, emphasized the necessity that the right must be specially set up and denied. ”
Concession and Agreement (1664)
“ II. ITEM. That the Governor, or whom he shall depute, in case of death or absence, if some be not before commissionated by us as aforesaid, do give to every person to whom land is due, a warrant sign'd and seal'd by himself, and the major part of his Council, and directed to the Surveyor General, or his deputy, commanding him to lay out, limit and bound acres of land, as his due proportion, is for such a person, in such allotment, according to the warrant; the Register having first recorded the same, and attested the record upon warrant ”
Felix Riesenberg, The Men on Deck: Master, Mates and Crew…
“ Resolved, That section 8, Rule V, General Rules and Regulations, all classes, be struck out and the following substituted therefor:8. Whenever an officer shall apply for a renewal of his license for the same grade, the presentation of the old license with oath of officer shall be considered sufficient evidence of his title to renewal, which old license and oath of office shall be retained by the inspectors upon their official files as the evidence upon which the license was renewed. ”
Walter Farquhar Hook,
A church dictionary
“ No licence shall be granted by any ordinary to any parties, except one of the parties have been living in the jurisdiction of the said ordinary for one month immediately before the licence be desired. ”
John Archibald Campbell, United States v. Rose — Opinion of the Court
“ The license of the Governor to the applicant to make a temporary occupation, until he could inform himself, so as to act considerately or intelligently, we think, cannot be treated as conferring a property in the land. ”
William Johnson, Chotard v. Pope — Opinion of the Court
“ It means that act by which an individual acquires an inceptive right to a portion of the unappropriated soil of the country, by filing his claim in the office of an officer known in the legislation of several States by the epithet of an entry-taker, and corresponding very much in his functions with the registers of land offices, under the acts of the United States. ”
United States. Congress, Abridgment of the Debates of Congress…
“ If I give a man a power of attorney to purchase for me a tract of land, in a particular district of country, of a specified quantity of acres, leaving it to him to make the location, and he accordingly make a purchase, and I consent to the act, receive the conveyance, and take possession of it, can my agent afterwards make another choice, divest me of my right, and reconvey the property without my consent? ”
