Boyd v. Alabama
| Citation | 94 U.S. 645,24 L.Ed. 302 |
| Parties | BOYD v. ALABAMA |
| Decision Date | 01 October 1876 |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
ERROR to the Supreme Court of the State of Alabama.
Mr. S. F. Rice for the plaintiff in error.
Mr. John T. Morgan and Mr. P. Phillips for the defendant in error.
On the 10th of October, 1868, the legislature of the State of Alabama passed an act, entitled 'An Act to establish a mutual aid association, and to raise funds for the common-school system of Alabama.' The act had a very fair and promising appearance, and to the casual reader would seem designed to promote the cause of science and art, advance education, and diffuse knowledge. Certain persons named in the act, and their associates, were given the right to form themselves into a partnership association for the distribution of books, paintings, works of art, scientific instruments and apparatus, lands and tenements, stock and currency, and such other valuables as should promote the object of the association; the distribution to be made by awards and prizes, under such rules and regulations as the parties might adopt, and in such places as they might select. The parties were also auth rized to receive subscriptions and to sell certificates of subscription, which should entitle the holders to such articles as might be awarded to them, or their equivalent in currency; the distribution to be made in public, after due advertisement, by lot, chance, or otherwise, according to the rules and regulations established. And it was made the duty of the parties to offer premiums and prizes to the citizens of Alabama 'for the best essays in science and art, and the most deserving works of art, and the most useful inventions in the mechanical sciences.' And before commencing business under the act, that is to say, before entering upon the career of public benefactions thus conspicuously set forth, the parties were required to deposit in the treasury of the State, to the credit of the school fund, and for educational purposes, $2,000, and annually thereafter the same sum for twenty years, or so long as they might do business under the act.
Nothing could seem to be of greater public utility than the objects contemplated by the enactment; yet, under its general and comprehensive language, license is claimed to set up and carry on lotteries for money, and to sell tickets in such lotteries; and it does not appear that any other use has ever been made of the right or privilege granted. None of the many objects mentioned, except currency, have been offered for distribution. This act was repealed in March, 1871. Before it was passed, there was a statute of the State prohibiting lotteries and imposing a fine, on conviction, of not less than $100 nor more than $2,000, upon any person setting up or carrying on a lottery, or concerned in setting up or carrying it on, without legislative authority. That statute remains unrepealed. Under this statute the defendant was indicted in the city court of Mobile for setting up and carrying on a lottery without legislative authority, and was convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of $1,000. On appeal to the Supreme Court of the State the judgment was affirmed. Revised Code of Alabama, sect. 3,616.
On the trial, the defendant admitted that he had been engaged in setting up and carrying on a lottery in the city of Mobile within twelve months before the finding of the indictment, but claimed a license for that purpose under the statute of 1868, he being one of the persons named therein. And the State admitted that the defendant had paid the money required by the statute of 1868 into the treasury in November of the previous year, and that the acts with which he was charged were done under that statute, and would be legal if the statute were constitutional, and it were not subsequently repealed.
The questions thus presented for our consideration relate to the constitutionality of the act of 1868, and the effect upon the right or privilege there conferred of the repealing act of 1871. The defendant contends that the right or privilege to set up and carry on lotteries in the State, conferred by the act, rests on a contract of the State, a consideration being given for its grant by the prescribed yearly payment into the treasury, and that the repealing act cannot, therefore, impair it. In consequence of a previous adjudication of the...
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