Dan Lehon v. City of Atlanta
| Decision Date | 04 December 1916 |
| Docket Number | No. 103,103 |
| Citation | 242 U.S. 53,61 L.Ed. 145,37 S.Ct. 70 |
| Parties | DAN. S. LEHON, Plff. in Err., v. CITY OF ATLANTA |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. John D. Little, Arthur G. Powell, Marion Smith, and Max F. Goldstein for plaintiff in error.
Messrs. Samuel D. Hewlett and Jams L. Mayson for defendant in error.
The question in the case is the validity of ordinances of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, which subject the business of a private detective or detective agency to police supervision, and provide that no person shall carry on such business without being first recommended by the board of police commissioners, and taking the oath of a city detective, and giving a bond in the sum of $1,000, as prescribed by the ordinances.
Plaintiff in error was convicted in the recorder's court of the city of a violation of the ordinances, and sentenced to pay a fine, with the alternative of imprisonment. Under the local procedure a petition for certiorari was presented to the judge of the superior court of the county to review the conviction, and was refused 'sanction,' to use the local word. This action was approved by the court of appeals and the judgment affirmed.
The court of appeals rejected the contention that the ordinances were unreasonable and void under the Constitution of the state, to review which decision we, of course, have no power; and it also sustained the ordinances against the contention that they offended the clauses of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The latter contention is repeated here.
His contention, in its most general form, is that the ordinances abolish the occupation of private detective by the requirements of application for a permit to the police commission of the city, the approval of the chief of police, oath of office, and to work under police supervision. These requirements, it is insisted, offend the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
The contention makes a Federal question, and, as we are not disposed to consider it frivolous, a motion to dismiss which is made will be denied.
In passing upon the merits we assume the facts of the complaint were established; that is, that plaintiff in error was proved to have acted as a private detective, though he denied and denies it, and that his services were those of a 'sleuth,' though he asserts they were only those of a clerk. We make these assumptions against the denials of plaintiff in error because,...
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