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Constitutional Law - Due Process And Equal Protection - Right Of Counsel Dec 1932

Constitutional Law - Due Process And Equal Protection - Right Of Counsel

Michigan Law Review

The Scottsboro cases decided by the Supreme Court at the present term raise several interesting constitutional questions. The judgments were assailed on the ground that they were violative of the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment in three respects: (1) that the negroes were tried by juries from which members of their race were systematically excluded; (2) that they were not accorded a fair, impartial and deliberate trial; (3) that due process was denied because the right of counsel, with the usual incidents of consultation and adequate preparation for trial, was lacking. While the Supreme Court …


What Is A "Contract" Under The Contracts Clause Of The Federal Constitution?, Paul G. Kauper Dec 1932

What Is A "Contract" Under The Contracts Clause Of The Federal Constitution?, Paul G. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

The case of Coombes v. Getz, recently decided by the United States Supreme Court, raises in a crucial way the question of what is a contract within the meaning of Article I, section 10 of the Constitution, forbidding States to pass laws impairing the obligations of contracts. A provision of the California Constitution in force at the time the plaintiffs brought this action in the state court below made directors of corporations jointly and severally liable to the creditors and stockholders for all moneys embezzled or misappropriated by the officers of the corporation during the term of office of …


Municipal Corporations-Power Of Board Of Appeals To Vary Application Of Zoning Ordinance Nov 1932

Municipal Corporations-Power Of Board Of Appeals To Vary Application Of Zoning Ordinance

Michigan Law Review

Although there was some dispute among the earlier authorities, it is the rule today that comprehensive zoning ordinances, if enacted under proper legislative authority, are constitutional and will be upheld in so far as they are reasonable in application. In order to give aggrieved property owners an opportunity to obtain relief upon the basis of the ordinance itself without attacking its constitutionality, it has become common practice to give the board of appeals the power to vary the operation of the ordinance in specific cases.


Constitutional Law-Public Purpose-Feed Loans To Destitute Farmers Nov 1932

Constitutional Law-Public Purpose-Feed Loans To Destitute Farmers

Michigan Law Review

Pursuant to a constitutional provision enabling such action, the Governor asked the supreme court of South Dakota the following question: "Could the legislature enact legislation which would permit the several counties as a county enterprise to raise funds either by supplemental budget or bond or warrant issues with which they might in turn furnish feed loans or even distribute feed as a part of a county poor relief system . . . ?" In answer to this question the court held, in In re Opinion of the Judges, that the furnishing of feed or feed loans to individuals …


Taxation-Constitutionality Of A Conclusive Presumption That A Transfer Executed Within A Limited Period Before Death Is Made In Contemplation Of Death Nov 1932

Taxation-Constitutionality Of A Conclusive Presumption That A Transfer Executed Within A Limited Period Before Death Is Made In Contemplation Of Death

Michigan Law Review

Motion for a refund was made by the plaintiff on the ground that certain transfers made within two years preceding the death of the decedent should not have been taxed under the federal estate tax since they were not in fact made in contemplation of death. The defendant filed a demurrer on the ground that under the provisions of sec. 302 (c) of the Revenue Act of 1926, such transfers were taxable regardless of the motive impelling them. The section reads: "Where within two years prior to his death . . . and without such a consideration the decedent has …


Constitutional Law-Stare Decisis Nov 1932

Constitutional Law-Stare Decisis

Michigan Law Review

The defendant corporation, a lessee of school lands from the state of Oklahoma, protested the right of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to tax its net income. Held, under the rule of Gillespie v. Oklahoma, the income cannot be taxed without interfering with a state instrumentality. Four dissenting justices-Stone, Brandeis, Roberts, and Cardozo--admitted the applicability but denied the wisdom of the Gillespie case and the inability of the court to overrule itself, in Burnet v. Coronado Oil and Gas Co.


Constitutional Law - Due Process-Business "Affected With A Public Interest'' Jun 1932

Constitutional Law - Due Process-Business "Affected With A Public Interest''

Michigan Law Review

Ever since Munn v. Illinois there has been continuous dispute as to what regulation is deprivation of property without due process of law within the prohibition of the Fourteenth Amendment. In this first case Chief Justice Waite, discussing with approval prior statutes regulating the rates of chimney sweeps and of auctioneers, the price of bread, the charges of draymen and of hackneycabs, concluded that, if these might be regulated, surely so important a matter as the rates of the great grain elevators in Chicago might be subjected to regulation. The position taken was expressed by these sentences: "From this it …


Constitutional Law-Criminal Procedure-Comment By Judge On Evidence Jun 1932

Constitutional Law-Criminal Procedure-Comment By Judge On Evidence

Michigan Law Review

In the recent case of People v. Kelly, the Illinois supreme court decided (two justices dissenting) that the common law right of a judge, in charging the jury, to comment on the evidence and advise as to the facts was not an essential attribute of trial by jury as it, existed at common law, and held that a statute limiting the charge strictly to matters of law was not an infringement of the right of trial by jury guaranteed by successive Illinois constitutions. The court also decided, in upholding the legislative enactment, that this restriction of the functions of …


Constitutional Law - Redistricting For Congressional Elections - Lawmaking Power Of The State Jun 1932

Constitutional Law - Redistricting For Congressional Elections - Lawmaking Power Of The State

Michigan Law Review

By the latest reapportionment of the House of Representatives (tit. 2, U. S. C. A., art. 2a), passed in 1929, Minnesota received one less representative than it had had by the previous apportionment (Act of 1911, tit. 2, U. S. C. A., sec. 2). The state legislature of Minnesota passed an act dividing the state into congressional districts in accordance with this apportionment, and the governor vetoed the bill. Thereupon the state house of representatives, by resolution, directed the secretary of state to enroll the bill as a law on the ground that the veto of the governor was a …


Evidence -The Possibility Of Incrimination In A State Jurisdiction Does Not Warrant The Assertion Of The Constitutional Privilege In Federal Proceedings May 1932

Evidence -The Possibility Of Incrimination In A State Jurisdiction Does Not Warrant The Assertion Of The Constitutional Privilege In Federal Proceedings

Michigan Law Review

On indictment for the refusal to give information requested by the authorized revenue agent, the appellee interposed a special plea averring that it would compel him to become a witness against himself in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the federal Constitution which reads, "nor shall any person be compelled to be a witness against himself." Held, the danger of incrimination in a state court was not grounds for asserting the constitutional privilege. United States v. Murdock, 284 U. S. 141, 52 Sup. Ct. 63, 76 L. ed. 83 (1931).


Political Theory And Practice, Everett S. Brown May 1932

Political Theory And Practice, Everett S. Brown

Michigan Law Review

A review of THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT. A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY. By J. Mark Jacobson, Ph.D.


The Judicial Process Of Treaty Interpretation In The United States Supreme Court, John Selden Tennant May 1932

The Judicial Process Of Treaty Interpretation In The United States Supreme Court, John Selden Tennant

Michigan Law Review

When the Federal Union was substituted for the loose confederation which had preceded it, one of the most impelling reasons for the change was the need for a united international front, which could only be achieved by further concentration in a central government of the power to deal with foreign nations. A necessary part of this general plan was the treaty-making power, taken from the states by Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution, and lodged in the President and the Senate by Article II, Section II.


Constitutional Law-Compelling Witness Duty From Absent Nationals Apr 1932

Constitutional Law-Compelling Witness Duty From Absent Nationals

Michigan Law Review

In proceedings taken under the so-called Walsh Act the petitioner, Blackmer, a United States citizen residing in France, was found guilty of contempt for failure to respond to subpoenas issued out of a federal court and served on him in France by a United States consul requiring him to appear as a witness in that court. See 30 MICH. L. REV. 137 (1931) for a more detailed statement of the facts. By a unanimous decision (Mr. Justice Roberts not participating) the United States Supreme Court recently held that the contempt decree be affirmed, thus sustaining the constitutionality of the Walsh …


Constitutional Law -Is Redistricting Of A State For Congressional Elections An Exercise Of The Lawmaking Power Of The State? Apr 1932

Constitutional Law -Is Redistricting Of A State For Congressional Elections An Exercise Of The Lawmaking Power Of The State?

Michigan Law Review

The governor of Minnesota vetoed an act of the legislature dividing the state into congressional districts in accordance with the latest re-apportionment of the House of Representatives (46 Stat. 21, 26). Thereupon the state house of representatives by resolution directed the secretary of state to enroll the bill as a law. In an action started to test the validity of the law, held, Art. 1, Sec. 4 (1) of the Constitution of the United States provides that, "The time and place of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but …


Equity- Constitutional Law - Power Of Legislature To Change Equitable Doctrines Mar 1932

Equity- Constitutional Law - Power Of Legislature To Change Equitable Doctrines

Michigan Law Review

A Nebraska statute provided that in case of insolvency of a state bank the general depositors, subject to prior liens for taxes, have a first lien on all assets of the bank. A bank converted a note deposited for a special purpose, and indistinguishably mingled the proceeds with the general assets of the bank before insolvency. The deposit was held to have created a trust and the cestui was allowed to recover the amount of the note (trust fund) as a preferred claim upon the general assets of the bank. To the argument that this statute prohibited the imposition of …


Constitutional Law - Extent Of State Police Power In Protection Of Public Health Mar 1932

Constitutional Law - Extent Of State Police Power In Protection Of Public Health

Michigan Law Review

An Illinois statute prohibited the manufacture or sale of milk to which had been added any fat or oil other than milk fat. The defendant was engaged in manufacturing for sale outside of the state a product composed of skimmed milk and cocoanut oil which was not deleterious to health in any way. When it was sought to recover the penalty imposed by the statute for its violation, it was claimed that the law was unconstitutional in that it deprived the defendant of property without due process of law. The court held that the statute was an invalid exercise of …


The Constitution And The International Labor Conventions, Harold W. Stoke Feb 1932

The Constitution And The International Labor Conventions, Harold W. Stoke

Michigan Law Review

The International Labor Organization, since its establishment in 1919, has become one of the most active of the international institutions of the post-war period. It was founded upon that provision of the Treaty of Versailles which binds each signatory nation and those which should later join the organization to endeavor to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of labor for men, women and children, both in their own countries and in the countries to which their commercial and industrial relations extend.


Presumptions - Constitutional Validity Of Statute Establishing Proof Of Reputation As Prima Facie Evidence Of Commission Of Crime Feb 1932

Presumptions - Constitutional Validity Of Statute Establishing Proof Of Reputation As Prima Facie Evidence Of Commission Of Crime

Michigan Law Review

The rise and sway of the gangster as a menace to American social and economic security has led, of late, to the employment of unique means of combating lawlessness. Faced by a tremendous increase in the difficulties lying in the path of those seeking the conviction of professional criminals for major crimes, the police and prosecutors often turn towards a means of fighting crime originally devised to make life uncomfortable for petty off enders. The enforcement of the pistol laws and the vagrancy statutes against millionaire gangsters, and repeated arrests on suspicion, have been resorted to as a means of …


Foreign Diplomats And The Prohibition Laws, Lawrence Preuss Jan 1932

Foreign Diplomats And The Prohibition Laws, Lawrence Preuss

Michigan Law Review

Notwithstanding the general and inclusive nature of the Eighteenth Amendment and of the enforcement legislation enacted under its terms, the executive departments of the national government have acted on the assumption that foreign diplomats are exempted from the operation of the prohibition laws, and have issued regulations by which the importation of liquor by members of this class is permitted. According to statements of the responsible officers concerned, this privilege is based upon "international comity and usage," and upon "the established principles of international Jaw and the statutes of the United States, including the provisions of sections 4063-4065 of the …


Constitutional Law - Self-Incrimination - Effect Of State Immunity Statute In Federal Court Jan 1932

Constitutional Law - Self-Incrimination - Effect Of State Immunity Statute In Federal Court

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was indicted for violation of the National Prohibition Act. He pleaded immunity from prosecution in the federal court because of his forced testimony in the trial of another in the state court. Held, the state immunity statute was ineffective to protect the defendant in a federal court. United States v. Smith, 51 F.(2d) 803 (1931).


Taxation - Constitutionality Of A Conclusive Presumption That A Transfer Executed Within A Limited Period Before Death Is Made In Contemplation Of Death Jan 1932

Taxation - Constitutionality Of A Conclusive Presumption That A Transfer Executed Within A Limited Period Before Death Is Made In Contemplation Of Death

Michigan Law Review

Motion for a refund by the plaintiff on the ground that certain transfers made within two years of the death of the decedent should not have been subjected to the federal estate tax as they were not in fact made in contemplation of death. The defendant filed a statutory demurrer on the ground that section 302 of the Revenue Act as amended in 1926 (26 U. S. C. A. sec. 1049C) renders such property taxable irrespective of what impelled the transfer. The section reads, "Where within two years prior to his death and without consideration the decedent has made a …