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Michigan Law Review

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Articles 1231 - 1260 of 1622

Full-Text Articles in Constitutional Law

Constitutional Law--Mortgages--Frazier-Lemke Act May 1935

Constitutional Law--Mortgages--Frazier-Lemke Act

Michigan Law Review

In 1922 and 1924 appellee mortgaged property worth $18,000 to secure a loan of $9,000 from appellant which was to be repaid in installments over a period of thirty-four years. Default being made on the covenants in the mortgage, the mortgagee declared the full amount due and brought a suit to foreclose. Proceedings were stayed when the appellee sought relief under Section 75 of the Bankruptcy Act, but he was unable to obtain the requisite majority in number and amount to the composition proposed. The state court entered a foreclosure judgment and ordered a sale. The mortgagor then sought relief …


Constitutional Law -The Railroad Retirement Act - Interstate Commerce - Due Process May 1935

Constitutional Law -The Railroad Retirement Act - Interstate Commerce - Due Process

Michigan Law Review

Serious obstacles were placed in the path of social legislation by the Supreme Court's decision holding the Railroad Retirement Act unconstitutional.1 To what extent the narrow view taken of the permissible field of regulation of interstate commerce will interfere with other legislation based on the commerce power remains to be seen. The majority of the Court, speaking through Mr. Justice Roberts, found the Act objectionable both as violating the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution and as not being a regulation of commerce under the commerce clause. Before taking up these two aspects of the case, …


Constitutional Law-Presidents Power To Remove Federal Officers May 1935

Constitutional Law-Presidents Power To Remove Federal Officers

Michigan Law Review

The Federal Trade Commission Act provided that, "Any commissioner may be removed by the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office." The President, in removing a commissioner who had been appointed with the consent of the Senate for a seven-year term, disclaimed any reflection upon the commissioner personally or upon his services, but stated that the removal was made because " . . . I do not feel that your mind and my mind go along together on either the policies or the administering of the Federal Trade Commission, and, frankly, I think it best for the …


Special Assessments - Constitutionality Of Legislation Modifying Means Of Enforcement Of Special Assessment Liens May 1935

Special Assessments - Constitutionality Of Legislation Modifying Means Of Enforcement Of Special Assessment Liens

Michigan Law Review

An Arkansas statute, affecting the mortgage securing certain special assessment bonds, provided, inter alia, for the extension of the interval between default in payment and sale under foreclosure from sixty-five days to at least two and a half years, reduced the penalty for non-payment from twenty per cent to three per cent, and provided that the possession of the delinquent property owner be undisturbed for four years after sale on foreclosure, thus modifying the law existing at the time the bonds were issued. The United States Supreme Court held the statute to be invalid as violating the constitutional prohibition …


Constitutional Law - Reinstatement Of Attorney - Constitutionality Of Pardon Statute - Legislative Encroachment On Judicial Power May 1935

Constitutional Law - Reinstatement Of Attorney - Constitutionality Of Pardon Statute - Legislative Encroachment On Judicial Power

Michigan Law Review

In proceedings based on the record of his conviction for attempted extortion, the petitioner was disbarred. Having received a full pardon from the governor, he sought reinstatement, relying on a statute which purported to make reinstatement mandatory on the court upon proof of the pardon. Held, the statute is unconstitutional in so far as it directs the court to reinstate a disbarred attorney without a showing of moral rehabilitation. It is an encroachment by the legislature upon the inherent power of the court to admit attorneys to practice and in effect vacates a judicial order by legislative mandate. In …


Taxation - Constitutionality Of Graduated Sales Taxes May 1935

Taxation - Constitutionality Of Graduated Sales Taxes

Michigan Law Review

A Kentucky statute of 1930 levied a tax on gross retail sales at rates varying from 1/20 of one per cent on gross sales up to $400,000 per year, to one per cent on all gross sales over $1,000,000 annually. For the purpose of this tax all retail stores under the same ownership, operation or control, directly or indirectly, were treated as a unit; hence, the heavier rates of the tax fell upon the chain stores and large department stores. A group of chain and department stores sought to enjoin the collection of the tax, as contrary to the state …


Constitutional Law - Eminent Domain - Power Of Federal Government To Condemn Land For Slum Clearance Project Apr 1935

Constitutional Law - Eminent Domain - Power Of Federal Government To Condemn Land For Slum Clearance Project

Michigan Law Review

In proceedings by the United States government to condemn certain lands in the city of Louisville for the purpose of a slum clearance and low cost housing project, several property owners demurred to the condemnation petitions as being beyond the constitutional powers of the federal government. Although the United States contended that the property was being taken for a public use, in the sense of general public advantage, and that the project was a valid expenditure of public funds for the general welfare, it was held that this condemnation was not within the power of the federal government. United States …


Constitutional Law - Price Fixing - Limits Of Administrative Discretion Apr 1935

Constitutional Law - Price Fixing - Limits Of Administrative Discretion

Michigan Law Review

An order of the New York Milk Control Board prescribed a minimum selling price to be charged by wholesale dealers to their customers and also a minimum buying price to be paid by the dealers to producers. Competition fixed the minimum selling price as the maximum obtainable. Plaintiff, a wholesale dealer, could not operate at a profit and sued to enjoin enforcement of the order as arbitrary and hence violative of due process. Held, that upon these facts only, with nothing to show that efficient dealers could not operate profitably, the price limits were not arbitrary. Hegeman Farms Corp. …


Constitutional Law - Agricultural Adjustment Act - Validity Of Milk Licenses Under Section 8 (3) Apr 1935

Constitutional Law - Agricultural Adjustment Act - Validity Of Milk Licenses Under Section 8 (3)

Michigan Law Review

Pursuant to the authorization of Section 8 (3) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the Secretary of Agriculture issued a blanket license in the Baltimore Sales Area whereby the distributors of fluid milk or its products in the current of interstate or foreign commerce were subjected to detailed regulation of production and purchase and resale prices. The plaintiff dairy company, handling milk produced and consumed exclusively within the state, sought an in junction against the enforcement of the license. Held, in granting a final decree, that the plaintiff's activities were not in the current of and that they did not …


Constitutional Law - Power Of Congress To Punish For Contempt - Power To Punish For Completed Acts Apr 1935

Constitutional Law - Power Of Congress To Punish For Contempt - Power To Punish For Completed Acts

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner was attorney for certain air lines and during the course of the "Air Mail" contracts investigation in the Senate in 1934 was ordered to produce certain correspondence. He delayed, claiming an attorney's privileges, and either he or his partner allowed clients to remove certain of the papers asked for from his files. Some of the papers were later returned by the clients, and others were destroyed. Petitioner was committed for contempt of the Senate and brought habeas corpus proceedings. Held, (1) neither the fact that an obstruction of legislative process has been removed or that its removal has …


Constitutional Law-Service Of Process-Jurisdiction Over Non-Resident Acquired By Service Upon Resident Agent, Maurice S. Culp Apr 1935

Constitutional Law-Service Of Process-Jurisdiction Over Non-Resident Acquired By Service Upon Resident Agent, Maurice S. Culp

Michigan Law Review

Henry L. Doherty, a non-resident of the State of Iowa, did business within the state under the name of Henry L. Doherty & Co., with a district manager in charge of the office at Des Moines. Under the manager were clerks and salesmen engaged in the business of selling securities. One of these salesmen made an illegal sale to Goodman, and for damages resulting from the transaction Goodman brought suit in 1931, serving in the regular manner in accordance with the provisions of section 11079 of the Iowa Code the district agent at the Des Moines office. Doherty appeared specially …


Taxation - Constitutionality Of Chain Store Taxation Apr 1935

Taxation - Constitutionality Of Chain Store Taxation

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff corporation filed a bill asking a permanent injunction against the enforcement of the Michigan chain store tax, which imposes a graduated levy, the amounts increasing from ten dollars per year per store for two stores owned, to two hundred fifty dollars per year per store for stores in "chains" of twenty-six or more. The plaintiff contended that the statute was unconstitutional under the "uniformity" clause of the state constitution and the equal protection of the laws clause of the federal Constitution. Held, the act is constitutional. C. F. Smith Co. v. Fitzgerald, 270 Mich. 659, 259 …


Practice And Procedure-Seventh Amendment-Power Of Federal Court To Increase Inadequate Verdict Mar 1935

Practice And Procedure-Seventh Amendment-Power Of Federal Court To Increase Inadequate Verdict

Michigan Law Review

A jury in a federal court awarded the plaintiff $500 in a personal injury action; he moved for a new trial on the ground of inadequate damages. Having obtained consent of defendant to entry of judgment for $1500, the trial judge denied the motion. Plaintiff appealed. Held, this procedure was a violation of the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution; a new trial must be granted. Dimick v. Schiedt, (U. S. 1935) 55 Sup. Ct. 296.


Rights In Land - Lateral Support - Statute Increasing Common Law Rights And Duties - Constitutionality Mar 1935

Rights In Land - Lateral Support - Statute Increasing Common Law Rights And Duties - Constitutionality

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued for damages to his building which collapsed during excavating operations on defendant's adjoining land. A Michigan statute makes it the duty of land owners excavating to a depth of 12 feet or more below grade level to furnish sufficient lateral support to protect adjacent land and structures thereon from injury "due to the removed material in its natural state, or due to the disturbance of other existing conditions caused by such excavation," and imposes liability for injuries due to failure to comply with the act. The excavation on defendant's land, reaching a depth of 14 feet below grade …


Taxation-State Taxes Upon Federal Instrumentalities-Who May Raise Question Of Unconstitutionality Mar 1935

Taxation-State Taxes Upon Federal Instrumentalities-Who May Raise Question Of Unconstitutionality

Michigan Law Review

In connection with the performance of a contract with the federal government, the plaintiff corporation was required to pay a state sales tax on lumber, cement, steel and other materials used in the construction work. An action was brought to enjoin the collection of the tax and to have it declared unconstitutional as impeding and hampering the federal government in the performance of its governmental functions, and as depriving the plaintiff of its property without due process of law. Held, the plaintiff is not a proper party to raise the question of the constitutionality of the tax: first, because …


The Gold Clause Decisions, John P. Dawson Mar 1935

The Gold Clause Decisions, John P. Dawson

Michigan Law Review

The gold clause decisions of February 18, 1935, have already taken their place among the great landmarks of American constitutional history. They have given a partial answer to some basic questions of constitutional law. Directly they have disposed of claims amounting to a total of many billions of dollars. But their further implications, both for public and private law, are of even greater magnitude; it may be many years before these wider implications are more fully understood.


Constitutional Law-Validity Of State Anti-Injunction Legislation Mar 1935

Constitutional Law-Validity Of State Anti-Injunction Legislation

Michigan Law Review

The development of organized labor in the United States has created difficult legal and social problems with which the courts and the legislatures are required to deal. The courts were the first to deal with these problems and, rightly or wrongly, attempted to apply to them the existing rules of law. For instance, the rules of property law have been applied. Where organized labor interfered with the carrying of the mail, it was said that the federal government had a property right in the mails. Where the carrying on of a business was interfered with, it was held that the …


Statutes- Constitutional Law - Legislative Action At Special Session Limited By Governor's Message Mar 1935

Statutes- Constitutional Law - Legislative Action At Special Session Limited By Governor's Message

Michigan Law Review

At a special session called by the executive to consider, among other matters, a bill "providing for the validation of bonds issued by a municipality under sufficient popular vote regardless of technical requirements," the legislature enacted a statute permitting validation of bonds even when issued without legal power, and the bill was approved by the governor. Pursuant to the statute, the common council of Detroit, in order to refund the city's bonded debt, approved the validity of the old obligations of the municipality, and petitioned for a writ of mandamus to compel the city controller to issue the refunding bonds …


The Delegation Of Federal Legislative Power To Executive Officials, Theodore W. Cousens Feb 1935

The Delegation Of Federal Legislative Power To Executive Officials, Theodore W. Cousens

Michigan Law Review

It will be the purpose of this article to attempt (1) a chronological survey of the previous Supreme Court cases relating to alleged delegations of legislative power, and (2) an analysis and discussion of the Panama Refining Co. decision in the light of this background. No discrimination is made between delegations of state and of federal legislative power, as the Supreme Court makes no such discrimination.


Taxation-Constitutional Limitations On Sales Taxes Feb 1935

Taxation-Constitutional Limitations On Sales Taxes

Michigan Law Review

There are twenty-three states having general sales tax statutes today. For the most part these statutes have been prompted by the recent economic depression as emergency measures. Most of them are license or privilege taxes, and are of two classes: those of the first type are sales taxes in name only, and consist of taxes upon the privilege of engaging in various occupations, of which selling personal property is but one; those of the second type are taxes solely upon the privilege of selling personal property at retail. Such taxes have met with considerable opposition in the form of litigation, …


Creation Of Government Corporations By The National Government, Maurice S. Culp Feb 1935

Creation Of Government Corporations By The National Government, Maurice S. Culp

Michigan Law Review

The federal government has until recently made very little use of the corporation as an agency for executing the laws of Congress. Early in the course of our national development the federal government chartered banks and shared in their ownership, utilizing them in the fiscal operations of the treasury. At various other times the federal government has chartered other corporations under some power granted by the Constitution, particularly railroad corporations under the commerce power. Beginning with the World War the corporate form of administrative agency was utilized to avoid difficulties which would arise if the execution of the war-time activities …


Constitutional Law -Validity Of State Recovery Acts Adopting Federal Codes, Paul G. Kauper Feb 1935

Constitutional Law -Validity Of State Recovery Acts Adopting Federal Codes, Paul G. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

Among the interesting problems raised by the enactment of state recovery legislation is the problem growing out of the attempted adoption by the states of the codes of fair competition formulated under the authority of the National Industrial Recovery Act. The validity of such state legislation may be questioned in light of the familiar doctrine of non-delegability of legislative power - a doctrine that has been written into the constitutions of both the federal and state governments by judicial determination. Before considering the application of this doctrine to the problem at hand, it will be well to refer to two …


Constitutional Law - Home Owners Loan Corporation Act - Penalties Clause Dec 1934

Constitutional Law - Home Owners Loan Corporation Act - Penalties Clause

Michigan Law Review

An indictment under the penalties clause of the Home Owners Loan Corporation Act, brought before the promulgation of authorization of charges for services rendered, was dismissed on the ground that, prior to such authorization, the act was not sufficiently definite to satisfy the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. United States v. Willard, (D. C. W.D.Mich.No.4057, September 27, 1934) 2 U.S.LAW WEEK, index p. 99.


Constitutional Law - New Deal Legislation - Gold Hoarding Statute Nov 1934

Constitutional Law - New Deal Legislation - Gold Hoarding Statute

Michigan Law Review

Two cases involving acts of Congress passed in March 1933 to prevent the hoarding of gold' were denied a review by the United States Supreme Court on October 8. Both of these cases involved the same facts. Plaintiff had delivered certain gold bars to a bank for safe-keeping. Later the bank notified him that, pursuant to an executive order by the President of the United States, it would have to surrender the gold. Immediately the plaintiff demanded the return of the bullion, which demand was refused, and he filed bills for specific performance of the bailment contract against the bank …


Practice And Procedure - Seventh Amendment- Power Of Federal Court To Increase Inadequate Verdict Nov 1934

Practice And Procedure - Seventh Amendment- Power Of Federal Court To Increase Inadequate Verdict

Michigan Law Review

A jury in a federal court awarded the plaintiff $500 for injuries received in an automobile accident. The plaintiff thereupon moved for a new trial on the · ground of inadequate damages. The trial judge, having obtained the consent of the defendant to entry of judgment for $1,500, denied the motion. Plaintiff appealed. Held, (Morton, C. J., dissenting) such procedure operates as a violation of the Seventh Amendment, and the only course open to a federal court in a case where damages are inadequate is to grant a new trial. Schiedt v. Dimick, (C. C. A. ·1st, 1934) …


Constitutional Law-Validity Of Statute Exempting Insurance Benefits From Process For Debts Jun 1934

Constitutional Law-Validity Of Statute Exempting Insurance Benefits From Process For Debts

Michigan Law Review

C, a judgment creditor of W, instituted garnishment proceedings to recover the amount of the judgment out of moneys owed by the X insurance company to W as beneficiary of H's life insurance. Subsequently the Arkansas legislature passed a statute exempting all moneys paid or payable to any resident of the State as the insured or beneficiary designated under any life, sickness, or accident insurance policy, from liability or seizure under judicial process, and provided that such benefits should not be subjected to the payment of any debt. Held, by a unanimous decision of the United …


Constitutional Law - Power To Enact Federal Securities Act Of 1933 Apr 1934

Constitutional Law - Power To Enact Federal Securities Act Of 1933

Michigan Law Review

The scope and implications of the Securities Act of 1933 have been set out in a recent issue of this Review. Broadly, the Act regulates the issue and sale of securities by requiring registration thereof with the Federal Trade Commission, by specifying certain data to be included in prospectuses relating to such securities, and by imposing sanctions in the form of penal and civil liabilities. The Act purports to be an exercise of the Congressional power "to regulate . . . commerce among the several states" and "to establish post offices and post roads." Various constitutional questions are involved but …


Constitutional Law-Price-Fixing - Changing Attitudes Apr 1934

Constitutional Law-Price-Fixing - Changing Attitudes

Michigan Law Review

The urgent need for rebuilding and readjusting our economic system has forced the various governments to devise methods by which to achieve those ends. The legislative enactments resulting from the efforts to bring about a "recovery" are destined to be challenged on the due process ground. The public is keenly concerned not alone in the practicality of the methods selected, but in their constitutionality as well. The recent case of Nebbia v. People is not only of interest to the lawyer; it was accepted as "good copy" in leading lay publications. The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction of one Nebbia, …


Federal Practice- Declaratory Judgments Apr 1934

Federal Practice- Declaratory Judgments

Michigan Law Review

Alabama, for the purpose of invoking original jurisdiction, applied to the Supreme Court of the United States for leave to file a complaint in equity against nineteen States to have statutes regulating and prohibiting the sale of goods manufactured by convict labor declared void because in violation of the commerce clause of the federal Constitution. Later, Alabama was allowed to submit an amendment eliminating fourteen States. Held, leave to file bill as amended denied. State of Alabama v. State of Arizona, et al., (U. S. 1934) 1 U. S. LAW WEEK (Feb. 6, 1934), index p. 468.


Constitutional Law - Due Process - Fishing Rights In The Public Waters Of Michigan Apr 1934

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Fishing Rights In The Public Waters Of Michigan

Michigan Law Review

The Ne-Bo-Shone Association, Inc., is an Ohio corporation which owns property on both banks of the Pine River for some distance. Following the decision of the Michigan Supreme Court in Collins V. Gerhardt that the stream is navigable and public, the complainant association was ordered to remove obstructions in the stream which hampered the free use of the stream by the public for fishing purposes. Thereupon complainant sought an in junction against certain public officials from taking action to remove these obstructions, claiming that it has the right to exclude the public from this portion of the Pine River, and …