Fourteenth Amendment Commons^™

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 …

Police Power - Validity Of A State Statute Fixing Maximum Charges For Tobacco Warehousemen, Peter S. Boter

Michigan Law Review

A statute of the state of Georgia prescribed maximum charges for handling and selling leaf tobacco. In this action, warehousemen sought to restrain the enforcement of the act, attacking it as an arbitrary exercise of state power contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and also as placing a substantial burden on interstate commerce in violation of the commerce clause. Held, that the statute was a constitutional exercise of the state's police power. Townsend v. Yeomans, (U.S. 1937) 81 L. Ed. 840.

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 …

Police Power - Due Process And State Regulation Of Food Production And Distribution, Charles C. Spangenberg

Michigan Law Review

It is well settled that the state, in the exercise of its police power, may legislate to protect the health and promote the general welfare of its citizens. It is equally well settled that the objects of this solicitude have the right, protected by the Fourteenth Amendment and similar provisions in the state constitutions, to follow such industrial pursuits and make such contracts as they choose. Unfortunately, "these correlative rights, that of the citizen to exercise exclusive dominion over property and freely to contract about his affairs, and that of the state to regulate the use of property and the …

Taxation - Overvaluation As Deprivation Of Due Process

Michigan Law Review

From 1929 through 1933 the valuation placed by the North Dakota Board of Equalization upon the property of the Great Northern Railway within the state declined less than six per cent. Relying upon evidence as to the value of its property in North Dakota as well as the common knowledge that the decline in values had been many times six per cent during this period, the Railway claimed that it had been deprived of its property in contravention of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Its contention was confined to the charge of overvaluation; discrimination, either in rates …

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. …

Eminent Domain - Slum Clearance And Low-Cost Housing Program As Public Use

Michigan Law Review

A New York statute set up a public corporation with power to investigate and study housing conditions in the city, and to plan and carry out projects for the clearance of slums and the providing of housing accommodations for persons of low income. The corporation sought to condemn certain property owned by the defendant, who resisted the proceeding on the ground that the taking was not for a public use and therefore violative of the Fourteenth Amendment and a similar provision in the state constitution. Held, that the taking was for a public benefit and that therefore the constitutional …

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 …

Public Utilities-Injunction Restraining Enforcement Of Rate Order Of State Commission-Jurisdiction Of Federal Court Under Johnson Act

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs sued in a federal district court for an injunction restraining enforcement of an order of the Corporation Commission of Oklahoma reducing gas rates. The plaintiffs alleged that the new rates were confiscatory and in violation of due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment. It appeared that there was much uncertainty in the decisions of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma as to whether the appeal to that court from the orders of the Corporation Commission were legislative or judicial. Held, that in view of the uncertainty of an opportunity for judicial review of the orders of the Commission, …

Corporations-Amendment Of Corporate Charters-Power Of The Legislature To Authorize Changes In Intracorporate Affairs

Michigan Law Review

In 1819, in the leading Dartmouth College case, Justice Story suggested that a state might easily retain control over its corporations by the simple expedient of reserving the power to alter, amend, or repeal the charter. The states were quick to accept the suggestion, but the real extent of this reserved power has never been definitely ascertained. A minority of the state courts, led by New Jersey, have held that this reserved power extends only over the contract between the state and the corporation; whereas a great majority have adopted the view that it extends over the contract between the …

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 …

Constitutional Law-Exclusion From Juries On Grounds Of Race And Color-Scottsboro Case

Michigan Law Review

A negro convicted of rape in one of the so-called "Scottsboro" cases moved to quash the indictment and the trial venire, alleging systematic exclusion of negroes from the grand and petit juries on the grounds of race and color. The trial court overruled the motions, and the Alabama Supreme Court sustained this decision, holding that the evidence failed to establish such exclusion. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, held, that the refusal to quash the indictment and trial venire was a denial of equal protection of the laws contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment, since the evidence on …

Public Utilities - Rates -Value Of The Service As Basis

Michigan Law Review

The power company had been serving a sparsely settled rural district in Utah for many years; it had never during its history paid dividends of over 5 per cent, during the last fourteen years it had averaged 3.75 per cent, and during the last five years 2.75 per cent. On the petition of customers who argued that the company should bear part of the burdens of the economic depression, the state utilities commission ordered a ten per cent reduction of all rates on the basis that the charge should not be more than the service was worth. Held, while …

Constitutional Law - Discrimination Against Negroes - Control Of Party Membership, Everett S. Brown

Michigan Law Review

The petitioner, R. R. Grovey, allegedly a citizen of the United States and of Texas, and possessing all the qualifications of a voter, was refused a ballot for a Democratic party primary because he was of the Negro race. Grovey demanded ten dollars damages from the respondent, Albert Townsend, the county clerk, a state officer. The Revised Civil Statutes of Texas provide for primary elections and regulate absentee voting. When Grovey demanded of Townsend an absentee ballot it was refused in virtue of a resolution of the state Democratic convention of Texas, adopted May 24, 1932, as follows:

"Be it …

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, …

Criminal Law And Procedure - Right Of Defendant To Accompany Jury On View-Due Process

Michigan Law Review

During the trial of appellant in the Massachusetts courts for murder the jury was sent to view the scene of the crime. The accused asked that he be allowed to accompany them, invoking the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment. Permission was refused. At the view, judge and counsel being present, a stipulation was entered into as to changes which had occurred since the crime. Upon conviction, appellant appealed to the United States Supreme Court asserting that there had been a denial of due process. Held, four justices dissenting, that there had been no denial of due process since no …

Administrative Law-Judicial Review-Federal Equity "Powers

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's testator, a resident of New York, died there and at the time of his death owned certain oil paintings on temporary loan to an Art Museum in Pennsylvania, on which the State of Pennsylvania levied an inheritance tax. Plaintiff, executor under a will disposing of the pictures, filed a bill in the Federal District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania to enjoin the defendants, tax officials of Pennsylvania, from attempting to impose or collect the inheritance tax. The bill alleged diversity of citizenship and the requisite jurisdictional amount, and further that the imposition of the tax violated the Fourteenth Amendment, depriving …

Segregation Of Residences Of Negroes, Arthur T. Martin

Michigan Law Review

Most white people do not want Negroes for neighbors. For many years this race prejudice alone seemed adequate to secure the type of domiciliary segregation which the majority desired. In recent years, however, Negro incursions into so-called white territory have become more numerous, and white landowners have resorted to legal devices to secure race exclusiveness in residential sections. In considering the validity of these segregation devices the courts have not ordinarily purported to take into account the social desirability of the end sought. No examination has been made of the factors back of Negro migration into white territory. No thought …

Primary Elections And The Constitution, Luther Harris Evans

Michigan Law Review

Recent attempts in Texas and elsewhere to exclude Negro voters from primary elections reveal the unsettled state of constitutional law in this field. Two struggles of principle, individualism versus police power and States' rights versus nationalism, are outlined in the judicial opinions reviewed below under the following headings: (I) Basis of state power over primaries; (II) Limitations on state power over primaries imposed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments; (III) Basis of state power over primaries for nominating United States Senators and Representatives; and (IV) Basis of national power over primaries for nominating United States Senators and Representatives.

Constitutional Law - Requirements Of Due Process In State Procedure

Michigan Law Review

In American Surety Company v. Baldwin the Surety Company complained that the procedure in Idaho deprived it of a hearing upon its liability on a supersedeas bond. After judgment was given on the bond the Surety Company moved to vacate the order and the motion was granted. Baldwin took an appeal from this order to the Supreme Court of Idaho which reversed the trial court. The sole question raised by the motion was whether the trial court had jurisdiction to give judgment. Under the Idaho practice an appeal from the judgment of the court was the proper method to review …

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 …