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Constitutional Law- State Regulation Of Hours Of Labor - Police Power And Due Process, Michigan Law Review Dec 1939

Constitutional Law- State Regulation Of Hours Of Labor - Police Power And Due Process, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A South Carolina statute prohibited labor of employees in enumerated manufacturing and mercantile establishments for more than fifty-six hours per week or more than twelve hours in any one day. Plaintiffs were druggists who brought suit to restrain the commissioner of labor from enforcing the statute. A temporary restraining order was issued and the commissioner of labor appealed. Held, the statute was unconstitutional as in violation of the due process and equal protection clauses in both state and federal constitutions. Gasque, Inc. v. Nates, (S. C. 1939) 2 S. E. (2d) 36.


Dicey's Law Of The Constitution: A Review, William A. Robson Dec 1939

Dicey's Law Of The Constitution: A Review, William A. Robson

Michigan Law Review

The first edition of this celebrated work appeared in 1885; and such was its vogue until ten or fifteen years ago that there is scarcely anyone over thirty-five years of age who studied law, politics or constitutional history at a university or professional law school in England and the British Dominions who was not "brought up" on Dicey. "Dicey on the Constitution" was regarded for generations not merely as a perfect, accurate and comprehensive statement of the principles of the British system of government; but also as a reliable explanation of its superior virtues and liberties. The book attained an …


Retroactive Application Of Law-A Problem In Constitutional Law, Edward S. Stimson Nov 1939

Retroactive Application Of Law-A Problem In Constitutional Law, Edward S. Stimson

Michigan Law Review

May an overruling decision be applied to ascertain the legal effect of prior conduct? In cases arising under the diversity of citizenship jurisdiction, the United States Supreme Court has held that the federal courts should apply earlier state court decisions, and not a decision overruling them, whenever the retroactive application of the new rule would adversely affect a party who had changed his position in reliance on the decisions overruled. In the absence of such reliance and change of position it has sustained the retroactive application of a new rule. If the basis of the first principle is elemental fairness …


Constitutional Law - Fourteenth Amendment - Privileges And Immunities Clause - Civil Liberties - The Hague Case, John N. Seaman Nov 1939

Constitutional Law - Fourteenth Amendment - Privileges And Immunities Clause - Civil Liberties - The Hague Case, John N. Seaman

Michigan Law Review

The decisions of the United States Supreme Court in recent years, interpreting the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment, have manifested two striking changes in trend. The first is towards less judicial restraint on governmental regulation of business; that is, towards tolerance of diminished "business liberty." The other is towards greater judicial restraint on governmental interference with individual liberty, commonly called civil liberty. A recent case/ which upheld freedom of speech and assembly and invalidated a city ordinance requiring the obtaining of a permit as prerequisite to a public meeting, not only illustrates the latter of these trends, but is …


Constitutional Law - Mortgages - Moratoria On The Way Out?, Elbridge D. Phelps Jun 1939

Constitutional Law - Mortgages - Moratoria On The Way Out?, Elbridge D. Phelps

Michigan Law Review

As a general proposition, one might perhaps feel prone to quarrel with the statement that "history repeats itself," but there can be little doubt that it applies full well to legislation aimed at relieving hard-pressed debtors in times of financial crises. From our earliest American history, every economic "winter" has provoked a landslide of pro-debtor legislation. Nor have mortgage debtors been overlooked in this regard. The remedies suggested have been as varied and ingenious as human minds could concoct. A brief review of the past decisions indicates that when they could be said to impair the obligation of contract, such …


Constitutional Law - Taxation Of Salaries Of Judges Of The United States, Thomas K. Fisher Jun 1939

Constitutional Law - Taxation Of Salaries Of Judges Of The United States, Thomas K. Fisher

Michigan Law Review

The Revenue Act of 1932 provided that "In the case of Presidents of the United States and judges of courts' of the United States taking office after June 6, 1932, the compensation received as such shall be included in gross income; and all Acts fixing the compensation of such Presidents and judges are hereby amended accordingly." A United States circuit judge, appointed in 1933, was required to include in his tax return the amount of his salary, under the Revenue Act of 1936, which re-enacted the above provision. His claim for refund being rejected, the present suit was brought, and …


Constitutional Law - Validity Of Voting Machine In General Election - Constitutional Construction, Michigan Law Review Jun 1939

Constitutional Law - Validity Of Voting Machine In General Election - Constitutional Construction, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Pursuant to statutory provisions the fiscal court of Jefferson County, Kentucky, appropriated $1,000 for renting voting machines to be used in the general election of 1938. The county on relation of its attorneys filed suit for a declaratory judgment on the constitutionality of the statute. The relators appealed from a judgment declaring the act valid. Held, the statute authorizing the use of voting machines in popular elections is a violation of section 147 of the Kentucky Constitution which provides for a "secret official ballot, furnished by public authority to the voters at the polls, and marked by each voter …


Garnishment - Full Faith And Credit - Nature Of Principal Judgment, John N. Seaman Jun 1939

Garnishment - Full Faith And Credit - Nature Of Principal Judgment, John N. Seaman

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, appellee, sued an Illinois insurance company for legal services, and on the same day sued out a writ of garnishment against a Michigan debtor of the insurance company. Two days later the insurance company was dissolved in Illinois under the provisions of the Illinois Insurance Code, and an Illinois liquidator was vested with title to all of the insurance company's property, wherever located. The liquidator intervened in this case, claiming prior title to the garnishment debt, by virtue of the Illinois statute and judicial proceedings. Held, the commencement of the garnishment suit gave plaintiff a lien on the …


Taxation-Procedural Devices For Preventing Multiple Taxation Of Intangibles Based On Domicile - Original Suit By Way Of Interpleader Before Supreme Court, Edmund O'Hare Jun 1939

Taxation-Procedural Devices For Preventing Multiple Taxation Of Intangibles Based On Domicile - Original Suit By Way Of Interpleader Before Supreme Court, Edmund O'Hare

Michigan Law Review

The famous Dorrance litigation raised very sharply the problem of avoiding multiple inheritance taxes based upon conflicting claims of domicile. Up to that time it was thought that the right of a state to levy an inheritance tax upon intangible personal property owned by a nonresident decedent had been effectively denied by Farmers Loan & Trust Co. v. Minnesota, Baldwin v. Missouri, and First National Bank of Boston v. Maine. But the Dorrance cases resulted in the collection of huge inheritance taxes by Pennsylvania and New Jersey, both states grounding their assessments upon the assertion that Dr. Dorrance …


Constitutional Law - Discriminatory State Game Legislation - Constitutionality As To Non-Resident Landowner, Russel T. Walker Jun 1939

Constitutional Law - Discriminatory State Game Legislation - Constitutionality As To Non-Resident Landowner, Russel T. Walker

Michigan Law Review

A non-resident landowner and his assignee brought an action to enjoin enforcement of a Louisiana statute which denied them the right to secure licenses to trap furbearing animals or alligators on the former's land until they had resided in the state for not less than one year. Held, the statute, discriminating as it did against landowners purely on the basis of non-residence, was unconstitutional as a deprivation of property and a denial of equal protection of the law. Pavel v. Patterson, (D. C. La. 1938) 24F. Supp. 915.


Constitutional Law - Power Of Legislative Investigating Committee To Supersede Grand Jury, D. M. Swope Jun 1939

Constitutional Law - Power Of Legislative Investigating Committee To Supersede Grand Jury, D. M. Swope

Michigan Law Review

The court of quarter sessions of Dauphin County ordered a grand jury investigation of alleged criminal misconduct by civil officers of the commonwealth. The governor then issued a call for a special session of the legislature. When this body had convened, seven members of the House of Representatives were appointed a committee to investigate the charges against those civil officers liable to impeachment. This committee sought a writ of prohibition to restrain the quarter sessions court from proceeding with the grand jury investigation, in pursuance of a statute enacted at the special session of the legislature giving the legislative investigating …


Constitutional Law - Special Assessments - Property Owner's Right To Hearing Under Due Process Clause - Legislative Determination Of Benefits, Richard S. Brawerman Jun 1939

Constitutional Law - Special Assessments - Property Owner's Right To Hearing Under Due Process Clause - Legislative Determination Of Benefits, Richard S. Brawerman

Michigan Law Review

The California legislature created the Los Angeles Flood Control District, empowered a board of supervisors to construct improvements and acquire property necessary or useful for carrying out the purposes of the act, and provided for the organization of drainage districts within the flood control district. An amendatory act provided that the board of supervisors might accept a transfer of "all, but not less than all," improvements of defined classes lying within the flood control district, whereupon the district should become liable for principal and interest of bonds afterward maturing which had been issued by any drainage district to cover the …


Constitutional Law - Public Utilities - Standing Of Public Utilities To Challenge The Constitutionality Of The Tva, Michigan Law Review May 1939

Constitutional Law - Public Utilities - Standing Of Public Utilities To Challenge The Constitutionality Of The Tva, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Eighteen electric utilities, with non-exclusive franchises and in direct competition with the TVA in selling power wholesale to municipalities, cooperatives and large industrial plants, sought to enjoin the activities and projects of the TVA and its directors as being unconstitutional and as contravening their rights under the fifth, ninth, and tenth amendments. Fraud, duress, and misrepresentations in securing customers were charged. A court of three judges dismissed the bill, holding that there was no fraud or duress and that the TVA was constitutional. Fourteen utilities appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Held, with Justices Butler and McReynolds dissenting, …


Constitutional Law - Taxation - Curtailment Of Intergovernmental Tax Immunities, Allan A. Rubin May 1939

Constitutional Law - Taxation - Curtailment Of Intergovernmental Tax Immunities, Allan A. Rubin

Michigan Law Review

In the recent well-publicized decision of Graves v. O'Keefe, the United States Supreme Court, following a path adequately cleared by Helvering v. Gerhardt, again enlarged the scope of the governmental powers to impose non-discriminatory taxes. In so doing, the Court clarified the fundamental principles underlying intergovernmental tax immunities by eliminating inconsistencies and resolving confusion persisting in this field of law. The Gerhardt case had sustained the imposition of a federal income tax on the salaries of employees of the Port of New York Authority, a state instrumentality created by New York and New Jersey. But it had not …


Trade Restraints - Constitutionality Of Statute Prohibiting Price Discrimination By Purchasers - "Actual Cost'' Provision Vague And Indefinite, Robert Meisenholder May 1939

Trade Restraints - Constitutionality Of Statute Prohibiting Price Discrimination By Purchasers - "Actual Cost'' Provision Vague And Indefinite, Robert Meisenholder

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was charged with violating a statute which provided that purchasers of certain farm products for manufacture or resale should not discriminate in prices between sections and between individual sellers. The statute required the purchaser to deduct full transportation costs from the purchase price paid or to deduct the actual costs of hauling from the point of purchase to the locality of manufacture or resale. No definition of actual cost was set out. Held, two justices dissenting, the term "actual cost" was so vague and indefinite that the statute denied due process of law. State v. Northwest Poultry & …


Constitutional Law - Twenty-First Amendment - Validity Of State Statute Discriminating Against Liquor Imports, Benjamin Guille Cox Apr 1939

Constitutional Law - Twenty-First Amendment - Validity Of State Statute Discriminating Against Liquor Imports, Benjamin Guille Cox

Michigan Law Review

A Michigan statute prohibited local dealers from selling beer manufactured in a state designated by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, acting pursuant to statutory standards, as one which by its laws discriminated against Michigan-made beer. Because Indiana was one of ten states so designated, an Indiana brewing company filed a bill in the federal court to enjoin enforcement of the Michigan statute as unconstitutional under the interstate commerce, equal protection and due process clauses of the Federal Constitution. Held, that the bill should be dismissed, since the statute, even though discriminating among importers, was a valid enactment under the …


Constitutional Law - Intoxicating Liquors - Power Of A State To Regulate And Tax The Sale And Import Of Liquor In A National Park, Stanton J. Schuman Apr 1939

Constitutional Law - Intoxicating Liquors - Power Of A State To Regulate And Tax The Sale And Import Of Liquor In A National Park, Stanton J. Schuman

Michigan Law Review

California ceded to the United States the territory within the state borders known as Yosemite Park, reserving to the state the right to "tax persons and corporations, their franchises and property on the lands included in said parks." California then laid excise and license taxes on the sale and importation of intoxicating liquors. The tax act contained some regulatory measures and the license was granted only after certain regulations were satisfied. T was an operator of stores and tourists' camps in the park who protested payment of these taxes. Held, the tax provisions were enforceable; but the regulatory provisions …


Criminal Law And Procedure - Constitutionality Of A Comment Upon Defendant's Failure To Testify, D. M. Swope Mar 1939

Criminal Law And Procedure - Constitutionality Of A Comment Upon Defendant's Failure To Testify, D. M. Swope

Michigan Law Review

For several years there has been agitation in legal and legislative circles to permit comment in a criminal action upon the failure of the defendant to testify. Both the American Bar Association and the American Law Institute have passed resolutions favoring such legislation. The chief objection to the proposal has been its alleged unconstitutionality. The purpose of this comment is to attempt to rebut such a contention and to show that the advocated change is both constitutional and eminently desirable.


Constitutional Law - Validity Of Sex Offender Acts, William K. Jackson Feb 1939

Constitutional Law - Validity Of Sex Offender Acts, William K. Jackson

Michigan Law Review

The sex offender has become an acute problem. Sociologists, psychiatrists, and lawyers sensing the imperative need for action have devoted much time and thought to the questions involved. Experience has shown that the sex offender is generally a recidivist; he has to be arrested and committed repeatedly for the same type of crimes. The point is graphically illustrated by the case of a man, fifty-nine years of age, arrested recently in Detroit for a sex offense involving a youth. An examination of his record showed that he had been arrested in 1899, when twenty-one years of age, on charges involving …


Constitutional Law-Freedom Of The Press-Freedom Of Speech And Assembly-Police Power, John N. Seaman Feb 1939

Constitutional Law-Freedom Of The Press-Freedom Of Speech And Assembly-Police Power, John N. Seaman

Michigan Law Review

The recent decision by the federal district court in the case of Committee for Industrial Organization v. Hague has brought the civil liberties issue to the forefront again. Acting under a city ordinance, defendant's mayor, director of public safety, and chief of police refused to issue a permit to plaintiff labor union to distribute circulars, hold public meetings, or display placards in Jersey City, and excluded plaintiff's members from the city, acting under the belief that their doctrines were "un-American," and that their presence and activities were likely to provoke the city's inhabitants to breaches of the peace. It was …


Constitutional Law-Double Jeopardy-Acquittal In Prior Criminal Prosecution As Bar To Action For Penalties Based In Fraud, Allan A. Rubin Feb 1939

Constitutional Law-Double Jeopardy-Acquittal In Prior Criminal Prosecution As Bar To Action For Penalties Based In Fraud, Allan A. Rubin

Michigan Law Review

Defendant had been acquitted of a criminal charge of wilfully attempting to evade or defeat an income tax under section 146(b) of the Federal Revenue Act of 1928. Subsequently this action was initiated for the collection of an additional fifty per cent of the total amount of the deficiency under section 293 (b) of the same act, which provides that if any deficiency is due to fraud with intent to evade the tax, fifty per centum of such deficiency in addition to the amount of the deficiency shall be collected. Plaintiff brought certiorari from an order of modification eliminating the …


Constitutional Law - Schools And School Districts - Teachers' Tenure Legislation, Bertram H. Lebeis Jan 1939

Constitutional Law - Schools And School Districts - Teachers' Tenure Legislation, Bertram H. Lebeis

Michigan Law Review

Although the question of security of employment for public school teachers was discussed as far back as the year 1885, when tenure was interpreted to mean the application of civil service principles to the teaching profession, the organized teacher tenure movement is of comparatively recent origin. From within the profession itself impetus was given to the movement by continuous campaigns carried on by local, state and national teachers' associations. From without, the growth of the movement was facilitated by a wider recognition of the evils attendant upon the unlimited power of school boards to "hire and fire" their employees at …