Carolene Products Co v. United States

• Decision Date: 06 November 1944
• Docket Number: No. 21,21
• Citation: 155 A.L.R. 1371,323 U.S. 18,65 S.Ct. 1,89 L.Ed. 15
• Parties: CAROLENE PRODUCTS CO. et al. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

323 U.S. 18

65 S.Ct. 1

89 L.Ed. 15

CAROLENE PRODUCTS CO. et al.

v UNITED STATES.

No. 21.

Argued Oct. 16, 17, 1944.

Decided Nov. 6, 1944.

Motion to Stay Mandate Granted, Dec. 18, 1944.

See 65 S.Ct. 310.

Mr. Samuel H. Kaufman, of New York City, for petitioners.

Mr. Chester T. Lane, of Washington, D.C., for respondent.

Mr. Justice REED delivered the opinion of the Court.

The limited writ of certiorari in this case was granted to review petitioners' conviction, affirmed by the Circuit Court of Appeals, for a violation of the Filled Milk Act.¹ The Court was moved to allow the petition in order to examine the contentions that the accused articles of food cannot, under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, be banned from commerce when these compounds are nutritionally sufficient and not 'in imitation or semblance' of milk or any milk product within the meaning of the statute and are not sold as milk or a milk product.

The contentions which are raised by petitioners to avoid their conviction were not dealt with in our prior decision which upheld the act's validity upon demurrer to an earlier indictment which charged its violation. United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144, 58 S.Ct. 778, 82 L.Ed. 1234.² Since these is- sues are important to those affected by the act, certiorari was granted. 321 U.S. 760, 64 S.Ct. 845. Questions of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment, similar to those presented here, had arisen from state filled milk legislation with varying results.³ Consideration by this Court of the filled milk legislation of Kansas appears in Sage Stores et al. v. Kansas, 323 U.S. 32, 65 S.Ct. 9.

The facts which are undisputed are fully set out in the opinions of the District Court and the Circuit Court of Appeals. It is sufficient for our purposes to summarize them as follows. The corporate petitioner sells the products mentioned in the indictment which are manufactured for it by another corporation from skim milk, that is, milk from which a large percentage of the butterfat has been removed. The process of manufacture consists of taking natural whole milk, extracting the butterfat content and then adding cottonseed or cocoanut oil and fish liver oil, which latter oil contains vitamins A and D. The process includes pasteurization of the milk, evaporation, homogenization of the mixture and sterilization. The compound is sold under various trade names in cans of the same size and shape as those used for evaporated milk. The contents of the can are practically indistinguishable by the buying public from evaporated whole milk, but the cans are truthfully labeled to show the trade names and the ingredients.

The indictment charged the petitioner corporation and the individual petitioners, its president and vice president, with violation of the statute by making interstate shipments of the compounds contrary to Section 2.⁴ The convictions and sentences are assailed as improper on three grounds: first, that the petitioner's compounds were not covered by the rationale of the Filled Milk Act; second, that the Act did not cover the compounds because they were not 'in imitation or semblance' of a milk product; and third, that since the compounds were wholesome food products and sold without fraud, in any sense, Congress could not constitutionally prohibit their interstate shipment.

First. As a basis for petitioner's position that the Filled Milk Act does not cover their compounds, it is argued that the nutritional deficiencies of filled milks led to the Act's enactment so as to protect the public health. These deficiencies occurred because the extraction of the butterfat from the whole milk removed a large proportion of the fat soluble vitamins A and D. The hearings on the bill and the course of the debate make it quite clear that this vitamin deficiency was of major importance in bringing about the enactment of the act.⁵ Petitioners then offered in the trial court to prove that since the passage of the Filled Milk Act in 1923, the technique of fortification of foods with vitamins A and D had advanced to a point where these vitamins could be restored to skim milk compounds so that the compounds were equally valuable in that respect to whole milk products and that their products had been so enriched. The offer was refused.

Filled milk is defined in Section 1(c) of the act as any milk, 'whether or not condensed, evaporated, concentrated, powdered, dried, or desiccated, to which has been added, or which has been blended or compounded with, any fat or oil other than milk fat, so that the resulting product is in imitation or semblance of milk * * *, whether or not condensed, evaporated, concentrated, powdered, dried, or desiccated.' The petitioner's compounds, it is agreed, fall within this definition. But, petitioners contend, they do not fall within its spirit, since the vitamins which cause deficiency have been restored and that therefore the act is inapplicable to the enriched compounds within that rule of statutory construction, as illustrated by Rector, etc., of Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 U.S. 457, 12 S.Ct. 511, 36 L.Ed. 226; United States v. AEtna Explosives Co., 256 U.S. 402, 41 S.Ct. 513, 65 L.Ed. 1013, and other cases, which excludes from the coverage of a statute things or situations which are beyond the legislative intent.

Petitioners' position as to the legislative purpose of the act was not accepted by the trial or reviewing court. We agree with those courts. While, as we have stated above, the vitamin deficiency was an efficient cause in bringing about the enactment of the Filled Milk Act, it was not the sole reason for its passage. A second reason was that the compounds lend themselves readily to substitution for or confusion with milk products. Although, so far as the record shows, filled milk compounds as enriched are equally wholesome and nutritious as milk with the same content of calories and vitamins, they are artificial or manufactured foods which are cheaper to produce than similar whole milk products. When compounded and canned, whether enriched or not, they are indistinguishable by the ordinary consumer from processed natural milk. The purchaser of these compounds does not get evaporated milk. This situation has not changed since the enactment of the act. The possibility and actuality of confusion, deception and substitution was appraised by Congress.⁶ The prevention of such practices or dangers through control of shipments in interstate commerce is within the power of Congress. United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. at page 148, 58 S.Ct. at page 781, 82 L.Ed. 1234; cf. McCray v. United States, 195 U.S. 27, 63, 24 S.Ct. 769, 779, 49 L.Ed. 78, 1 Ann.Cas. 561. The manner by which Congress carries out this power, subject to constitutional objections which are considered hereinafter in part 'Third' of this opinion, is within legislative discretion,⁷ even though the method chosen is prohibition of manufacture, sale or shipment.⁸ Congress evidently determined that exclusion from commerce of filled milk compounds in the semblance of milk was an appropriate method to strike at evils which it desired to suppress. Although it now is made to appear that one evil, the nutritional deficiencies, has been overcome, the evil of confusion remains and Congress has left the statute in effect. It seems to us clear, therefore, that there is no justification for judicial interference to withdraw these assumedly nondeleterious compounds from the prohibitions of the act. It follows from the point of view of the coverage of the act that it was not erroneous to refuse to consider the evidence which petitioners offered as to the wholesomeness of the compounds.

Second. The petitioners urge another reason why the act does not cover their compounds. This ground is that the compounds are not 'in imitation or semblance' of milk within the meaning of the act's definition of filled milk. Section 1(c), supra, p.22. Compare State v. Carolene Products Co., 346 Mo. 1049, 1060—1062, 144 S.W.2d 153. We agree that the product must be in imitation or semblance of milk to fall within the prohibition of the act.

Petitioners rely upon the admitted fact that no ingredient is added to the skim milk, oil and vitamins to alter the appearance of the compound. Accepting the evidence that the compounds are indistinguishable from whole milk products by purchasers, it is urged that they cannot be held to be in 'imitation or semblance' of milk unless the manufacturer purposefully adds something to make the mixture simulate milk. It is said Congress adopted this language from § 64(3) of the Farms and Markets Law of New York.⁹ Prior to that time, the Court of Appeals of New York, in construing the words 'imitation or semblance' as they appeared in another section of the New York law directed at the regulation of oleomargarine, had interpreted them as denouncing trade in oleomargarine only when the manufacturer consciously and purposefully attempted to create an imitation or semblance of milk products. People v. Guiton, 210 N.Y 1, 8, 9, 103 N.E. 773, L.R.A.1915A, 757. The adoption of these words after this interpretation and in the face of the Congressional knowledge of the New York decision and of the controversy over the effect of the use of such language,¹⁰ petitioners contend, brings into play the general rule that adoption of the wording of a statute from another legislative jurisdiction, carries with it the previous judicial interpretations of the wording. Willis v. Eastern Trust & Banking Co., 169 U.S. 295, 307, 18 S.Ct. 347, 352, 42 L.Ed. 752; cf. James v. Appel, 192 U.S. 129, 135, 24 S.Ct. 222, 223, 48 L.Ed. 377; Joines v. Patterson, 274 U.S. 544, 549, 47 S.Ct. 706, 708, 71 L.Ed. 1194.

The cases just cited have established under suitable conditions the rule for which petitioners contend that the interpretation goes with the act. It is a presumption of...