General Powers
All states, through legislation or the state constitution, gave their original health officers the general power to use their discretion to protect the public's health and safety.  These were general grants of authority to protect the public health, with more specific public health laws evolving over time. The first comprehensive public health law was proposed by the Shattuck Report on Boston's Health Status in 1850.  As government has evolved since the early constitutional period, there has been a shift from general grants of authority to more specific laws and regulations, as discussed later.  However, the foundation of administrative law remains the right of agencies to do specific enforcement and make specific regulations based on general grants of legal authority.[Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 837 (1984)]
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