Fourteenth Amendment Commons^™

Constitutional Law-Due Process-Punishment For Acts Done Without Consciousness Of Wrongdoing, Benjamin M. Quigg, Jr. S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In the recent case of United States v. Dotterweich the United States Supreme Court (four justices dissenting) held the president of a drug jobbing company personally liable for violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act on informations charging misbranding and adulteration of products. There was no evidence of any personal guilt on the defendant's part, nor was there any proof or claim that he ever knew of the introduction into commerce of the adulterated drugs in question. The disagreement among the members of the court was essentially one of statutory interpretation, but in view of the fact that …

Constitutional Law - Involuntary Servitude, John W. Potter

Michigan Law Review

Appellant was indicted under a Georgia statute which provided that anyone who contracted to perform services of any kind with the intent not to perform such services was subject, upon conviction, to fine and /or imprisonment. Proof of the contract, procurement of money or any other thing of value, and the failure to perform the service or to return the money advanced without good and sufficient cause were stated to be presumptive evidence of the requisite intent. Appellant claimed that the statute violated the Thirteenth Amendment and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The state court held the …

Constitutional Law - State Control Of Interstate Migration Of Indigents, Edward W. Adams

Michigan Law Review

The interstate migration of persons presents the United States with one of its most acute economic and social problems and carries in its wake a series of significant legal questions. Of paramount importance is the constitutional question whether the migration of indigents is subject to state control. To lend understanding to this problem, attention will be called first to the basic economic and social urges underlying interstate migration and second to the position of the indigent as defined by traditional legal concepts. To complete the discussion, suggestions will be offered for corrective federal legislation.

Constitutional Law -- Due Process -- Price-Fixing, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Nebraska statute required the licensing of private employment agencies and limited maximum compensation for services rendered to ten per cent of the first month's salary or wages of the person for whom employment was obtained. In this case the Secretary of Labor of Nebraska refused to issue a license because of the applicant's refusal to limit its compensation to the statutory maximum. In a suit for a peremptory writ of mandamus to compel the issuing of the license, the Secretary of Labor relied on the statute. In reliance on Ribnik v. McBride, the Supreme Court of Nebraska, with …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Price Regulation - Prohibition Of Sales Below Cost, George W. Loomis

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was indicted for alleged violation of the Pennsylvania Fair Sales Act, which prohibits the "advertisement, offer for sale, or sale of any merchandise at less than cost by retailers or wholesalers," and makes violation of the act a misdemeanor. His motion to quash the indictment was sustained by the court of the quarter sessions and affirmed by the superior court, and the state appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Held, affirming, that the statute violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment since it is not within the power of the state to prohibit sales below cost …

Constitutional Law - Validity Of State Use Tax On Mail Order Sales Of Foreign Corporation, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The respondent, a New York corporation licensed to do retail business in Iowa, did a large mail order business there also. Iowa customers sent orders by mail to the company's warehouses located outside that state, and the merchandise was shipped directly to the purchaser. On these mail order sales the company neither collected from its customers, nor paid to the state, the Iowa use tax. The petitioner, chairman of the state tax commission, threatened to cancel the respondent's license as a retailer and its permit to do business in Iowa unless such use tax were paid. Respondent obtained an injunction …

Constitutional Law - Labor Law - Peaceful Picketing Guaranteed By Due Process Clause Of Fourteenth Amendment, Eugene T. Kinder

Michigan Law Review

In the recent Thornhill and Carlson decisions the Supreme Court of the United States declared an Alabama statute and a California county ordinance prohibiting all picketing, peaceful or otherwise, unconstitutional on the ground that such broad legislation deprived employees and union members of their right of free speech, guaranteed by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In holding that employees and workers have a constitutional right to publicize the facts of a labor dispute, the Court was but taking another step in its recent crusade for the preservation of civil liberties. …

Constitutional Law - Privileges And Immunities Of Federal Citizenship - Discriminatory Tax On Out-Of-State Bank Deposits - Colgate V. Harvey Overruled, C. Eugene Gressman

Michigan Law Review

A Kentucky statute imposed on its citizens an annual ad valorem tax on their bank deposits outside the state at the rate of fifty cents per $100 and at the same time imposed on their bank deposits within the state a similar tax at the rate of ten cents per $100. Decedent, a resident and citizen of Kentucky, died in 1929. On several prior tax assessment dates, he had large funds on deposit in New York banks which he failed to report for taxation purposes. The state brought suit against the executor to recover the tax, interest, and penalties. The …

Non-Natural Persons And The Guarantee Of "Liberty" Under The Due Process Clause, D. J. Farage

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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 …

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 …

The Constitution Of The United States At The End Of One Hundred Fifty Years, Hugh Evander Willis

Historic Documents

Including the original Constitution, the formal amendments, and that part of the Constitution made by the Supreme Court and custom, as found in the Supreme Court Reports, arranged so far as possible according to the analysis found in the original Constitution.

With an Introduction by Hugh Evander Willis

Indiana University Publications Social Science Series No.1 1939

The Judicial Veto, Louis A. Warsoff

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Eminent Domain - Public Housing And Slum Clearance As A "Public Use", Wayne E. Babler

Michigan Law Review

The recent legislation providing for housing and slum clearance raises the interesting and practical problem of whether a taking of land for such housing and slum clearance purposes by means of an eminent domain proceeding is condemnation for a "public use," within the meaning of that term in eminent domain proceedings. Such a taking was held to be for a public use in the recent case of Spahn v. Stewart.

Constitutional Law - Protection Of Freedom Of Speech Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Jack L. White

Michigan Law Review

The appellant, a negro member of the Communist Party, was engaged in work as a paid party organizer in Atlanta in 1932. Shortly after leading a hunger march of unemployed he was arrested, and was tried and convicted under a state statute, enacted in the Reconstruction Period, which made criminal "any attempt, by persuasion or otherwise, to induce others to join in any combined resistance to the lawful' authority of the State." At the time of his arrest the appellant had in his possession evidence of his organization activities and also a quantity of party literature, but there was no …

Constitutional Law-Due Process -Fair Trade Acts, Milton Rabinowitz

Michigan Law Review

The New York "Fair Trade Act" proclaims price maintenance agreements subservient to the public policy of the state, and renders price cutting by any merchant with knowledge of such an agreement, even though not a party thereto, actionable as unfair competition at the suit of anyone injured thereby. In Doubleday, Doran & Co. v. Macy & Co., the New York court had condemned the enactment as violating the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Subsequently, the United States Supreme Court, in Old Dearborn Distributing Co. v. Seagram-Distiller Corp., decided the contrary as to the validity of a …

Constitutional Law - Validity Of Minimum Wage Legislation Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Jack L. White

Michigan Law Review

A state statute provided that it should be unlawful to employ women at wages not adequate for their maintenance, and established a commission to fix wages according to such a standard after a public hearing and a conference of representatives of employees and employers, and disinterested persons representing the public. The appellee was employed as a chambermaid in the hotel of appellant at less than the minimum wage prescribed, and brought suit to recover the difference between these amounts. The state court gave judgment for the appellee, and on certiorari the Supreme Court held that the statute was valid and …

Constitutional Law - Validity Of Criminal Syndicalism Statute, Herman Jerome Bloom

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was indicted for assisting in the conduct of a meeting which was called under the auspices of the Community Party, an organization advocating criminal syndicalism. The statute defined criminal syndicalism as "the doctrine which advocates crime, physical violence, sabotage, or any unlawful acts or methods as a means of accomplishing or effecting industrial or political change or revolution," and described a number of offenses, including the presiding at, or the assisting in, the conduct of a meeting of an organization advocating criminal syndicalism as defined in the act. The state court upheld the indictment under a construction of …

Constitutional Law - Validity Of Statute Abolishing Breach Of Promise Action, Emma Rae Mann

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued for damages for breach of promise to marry and seduction, after the enactment of a New York statute which abolished such causes of action. The court held for the defendant, basing its recognition of the validity of the statute on the ground that the legislature has plenary power to deal with the subject of marriage. Fearon v. Treanor, 272 N. Y. 268, 5 N. E. (2d) 815 (1936).

Constitutional Law --Twenty-First Amendment And Its Effect On The Commerce Clause And Equal Protection Clause As Applied To Liquor, William Stout Gordon

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs were granted an injunction in the lower court restraining the enforcement of the California Alcoholic Beverage Control Act on the ground that it violated the commerce clause and the equal protection clause of the Federal Constitution. The act imposed a license fee of $500 for the privilege of importing beer, in addition to the $50 fee to be paid by all wholesalers for the privilege of selling the beer. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision and held that the Twenty-first Amendment withdrew the protection of the commerce clause from liquor and that there was no denial of …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Bank Receiving Deposits During Insolvency

Michigan Law Review

An Ohio statute provided that an officer of a bank who received a deposit therein "when he has knowledge that it is insolvent" shall be subject to criminal liability. The defendant, a director of a state bank, was indicted under the statute for receiving deposits therein knowing the bank to be insolvent. The court of appeals reversed a decision of the common pleas court dismissing the defendant. On appeal the defendant contended that the statute violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution in that the use of the word "insolvent," without providing a definition …

Criminal Law And Procedure - Non-Unanimous Verdicts - Constitutionality

Michigan Law Review

An amendment to section 11, article 1 of the constitution of the state of Oregon permitted the concurrence of ten of the twelve jurors to control in criminal trials except in cases of murder in the first degree. It was claimed that this amendment discriminated against persons charged with second degree murder and in favor of those on trial for first degree murder, since in the latter case the jury could recommend life imprisonment which was the punishment prescribed in the former. The court held that there was no violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. State v. …

Constitutional Law - Franchise Tax - Burden Upon Interstate And Foreign Commerce - Due Process - Equal Protection Of The Laws

Michigan Law Review

The state of California adopted a franchise tax which was based upon the corporations' net income apportioned according to "that portion which is derived from business done within the State." When this was construed to include not merely the income from intrastate business alone, but rather the income from both this and from all interstate and foreign business attributable to California, its enforcement was resisted upon the grounds that (1) so construed it was repugnant to the commerce clause upon the theory that it burdened interstate and foreign commerce, (2) it violated the due process clause upon the theory that …

Constitutional Law-Validity Of State Statute Forbidding Sale Of Prison-Made Goods Manufactured In Other States-Validity Of Federal Statute Permitting State Control Of Goods In Interstate Commerce

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was prosecuted in an Ohio court for selling in original packages goods shipped to him from an Alabama prison in which they were manufactured. The prosecution was under an Ohio statute prohibiting sale on the open market of goods, wares, or merchandise manufactured or mined wholly or in part in any other state by convicts or prisoners except those on parole or probation. Other Ohio statutes impose a like prohibition on the sale of convict-made goods manufactured in Ohio. The federal Hawes-Cooper Act provides that all goods, wares, and merchandise manufactured, produced, or mined wholly or in part by …

Constitutional Law-Due Process--Nonresident Motorist Statute

Michigan Law Review

Petition for writ of prohibition on the ground that the notice provided by the Arkansas nonresident motorist statute did not meet the requirements of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The statute required that service of process be had on the secretary of state and that the plaintiff send notice of such service to the nonresident defendant at his last known address by registered letter, and required that the defendant's return receipt or the affidavit of the plaintiff of compliance with the statute be filed in the office of the clerk of court. Held, the statute is …

Constitutional Law-Taxation-Equal Protection-Privileges And Immunities Under The Fourteenth Amendment

Michigan Law Review

Reports having shown that Vermont capital for investment purposes was, due to the existing tax system, being driven out of the state, and that it was difficult to obtain capital from outside at low rates, a statute was enacted which was expected to remedy the difficulties by providing that interest up to five per cent on loans made within the state should be exempt from taxation while income from loans made outside the state should be taxed at a set rate. In a proceeding to test the validity of the measure, the state court upheld the tax, but on appeal …

Constitutional Law-Conservation Of Waters-Validity Of Statute Limiting Riparian Rights

Michigan Law Review

By the common law a riparian owner on a non-navigable stream has a vested right in the continuous natural flow of the stream on or bordering his land. An Oregon statute undertakes to cut down this right; it provides that a riparian owner's vested right to the continuous flow of the stream is limited to such flow as is necessary to preserve to him the beneficial uses to which he is already putting the water. Inasmuch as the right to the full continuous flow as against non-riparian appropriators is really a right to insist upon the availability of the stream …

Constitutional Law - State Police Power - Regulation Of Advertising By Dentist

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a practicing dentist, brought an action to enjoin the enforcement of a section of Oregon legislation regulating the practice of dentistry, which defined certain types of advertising and solicitation as unprofessional conduct and, as such, ground for the revocation of a license to practice. The section was upheld by the state supreme court and plaintiff appealed to the United States Supreme Court, alleging that the statute was unconstitutional in that it impaired the obligations of existing contracts and violated the "due process" and "equal protection" clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Held, that the statute was a valid exercise …

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 …

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, …