District of Columbia v. John Thompson Co

• Decision Date: 08 June 1953
• Docket Number: No. 617,617
• Citation: 97 L.Ed. 1480,73 S.Ct. 1007,346 U.S. 100
• Parties: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. JOHN R. THOMPSON CO., Inc
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

346 U.S. 100

73 S.Ct. 1007

97 L.Ed. 1480

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

v JOHN R. THOMPSON CO., Inc.

No. 617.

Argued April 30 and May 1, 1953.

Decided June 8, 1953.

[Syllabus from pages 100-101 intentionally omitted] Mr. Chester H. Gray, Washington, D.C., for petitioner.

Mr. Ringgold Hart, Washington, D.C., for respondent.

Mr. Philip Elman, Washington, D.C., for U.S. amicus curiae, by special leave of Court.

Mr. Edward F. Colladay, Washington, D.C., for Washington Board of Trade, amicus curiae, by special leave of Court.

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a criminal proceeding prosecuted by information against respondent for refusal to serve certain members of the Negro race at one if its restaurants in the District of Columbia solely on account of the race and color of those persons. The information is in four counts, the first charging a violation of the Act of the Legislative Assembly of the District of Columbia,¹ June 20, 1872 and the others charging violations of the Act of the Legislative Assembly of the District of Columbia,² June 26, 1873, L.Dist.Col.1871—1873, pp. 65, 116. Each Act makes it a crime to discriminate against a person on account of race or color or to refuse service to him on that ground.

The Municipal Court quashed the information on the ground that the 1872 and 1873 Acts had been repealed by implication on the enactment by Congress of the Organic Act of June 11, 1878, 20 Stat. 102. On appeal the Municipal Court of Appeals held that the 1872 and 1873 Acts were valid when enacted, that the former Act insofar as it applies to restaurants, had been repealed, but that the latter Act was still in effect. It therefore affirmed the Municipal Court insofar as it dismissed the count based on the 1872 Act and reversed the Municipal Court on the other counts. 81 A.2d 249. On cross-appeal, the Court of Appeals held that the 1872 and 1873 Acts were unenforceable and that the entire information should be dismissed. 92 U.S.App.D.C. —-, 203 F.2d 579. The case is here on certiorari.

I.

The history of congressional legislation dealing with the District of Columbia begins with the Act of July 16, 1790, 1 Stat. 130, by which the District was established as the permanent seat of the Government of the United States. We need not review for the purposes of this case the variety of congressional enactments pertaining to the management of the affairs of the District between that date and 1871. It is with the Organic Act of February 21, 1871, 16 Stat. 419, that we are particularly concerned.

That Act created a government by the name of the District of Columbia, constituted it 'a body corporate for municipal purposes' with all of the powers of a municipal corporation 'not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and the provisions of this act', and gave it jurisdiction over all the territory within the limits of the District. § 1. , the Act vested 'legislative power and authority' in a Legislative Assembly consisting of a Council and a House of Delegates, members of the Council to be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate and members of the House of Delegates to be elected by male citizens residing in the District. §§ 5, 7. The act provided, with exceptions not material here,³ that 'the legislative power of the District shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation within said District, consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act'. § 18. All acts of the Legislative Assembly were made subject at all times 'to repeal or modification' by Congress. § 18. And it was provided that nothing in the Act should be construed to deprive Congress of 'the power of legislation' over the District 'in as ample manner as if this law had not been enacted.' § 18. Executive power was vested in a governor appointed by the President by and with the advice of the Senate. § 2. And it was provided that the District should have in the House of Representatives an elected delegate having the same rights and privileges as those of delegates from federal territories. § 34.

This government (which was short-lived⁴) was characterized by the Court is a 'territorial government.' Eckloff v. District of Columbia, 135 U.S. 240, 241, 10 S.Ct. 752, 34 L.Ed. 120. The analogy is an apt one. The grant to the Legislative Assembly by § 18 of legislative power which extends 'to all rightful subjects of legislation' is substantially identical with the grant of legislative power to territorial governments which reads: 'The legislative power of every Territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States.' R.S. § 1851.

The power of Congress over the District and its power over the Territories are phrased in very similar language in the Constitution. Article I, § 8, cl. 17 of the Constitution provides that 'The Congress shall have Power * * * To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States'. Article IV, § 3, cl. 2 of the Constitution grants Congress authority over territories in the following words:

'The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States * * *.'

The power of Congress to delegate legislative power to a territory is well settled. Simms v. Simms, 175 U.S. 162, 168, 20 S.Ct. 58, 60, 44 L.Ed. 115; Binns v. United States, 194 U.S. 486, 491, 24 S.Ct. 816, 817, 48 L.Ed. 1087; Christianson v. King County, 239 U.S. 356, 365, 36 S.Ct. 114, 118, 60 L.Ed. 327. The power which Congress constitutionally made delegate to a territory (subject of course to 'the right of Congress to revise, alter, and revoke,' Hornbuckle v. Toombs, 18 Wall. 648, 655, 21 L.Ed. 966, covers all matters 'which, within the limits of a state, are regulated by the laws of the state only.'⁵ Simms v. Simms, supra, 175 U.S. at page 168, 20 S.Ct. at page 60.

The power of Congress to grant self-government to the District of Columbia under Art. I, § 8, cl. 17 of the Con- stitution would seem to be as great as its authority to do so in the case of territories. But a majority of the judges of the Court of Appeals held that Congress had the constitutional authority to delegate 'municipal' but not 'general' legislative powers and that the Acts of 1872 and 1873, being in the nature of civil rights legislation, fell in the latter group and were for Congress alone to enact. In reaching that conclusion the Court of Appeals relied upon two decisions of the Court, Stoutenburgh v. Hennick, 129 U.S. 141, 9 S.Ct. 256, 32 L.Ed. 637, and Metropolitan R. Co. v. District of Columbia, 132 U.S. 1, 10 S.Ct. 19, 33 L.Ed. 231. The first of these cases involved an act of the Legislative Assembly of the District imposing a license tax on businesses within the District. The Court held, following Robbins v. Taxing District of Shelby County, 120 U.S. 489, 7 S.Ct. 592, 30 L.Ed. 694, that it could not be constitutionally applied to a representative of a Maryland company soliciting orders in the District of Columbia. The result would have been the same, as the Robbins case indicates, had a state rather than the District enacted such a law. So, while it is true that the Court spoke of the authority of Congress to delegate to the District the power to prescribe 'local regulation' but not 'general legislation,' those words in the setting of the case suggest no more than the difference between local matters on the one hand and national matters, such as interstate commerce, on the other.

The second of these cases, Metropolitan R. Co. v. District of Columbia, 132 U.S. 1, 10 S.Ct. 19, 33 L.Ed. 231, presented the question of the capacity of the District of Columbia to sue. The Court held that it might do so, noting that while the District was 'a separate political community', its sovereign power was lodged in the Congress. 'The subordinate legislative powers of a municipal character, which have been or may be lodged in the city corporations, or in the District corporation, do not make those bodies sovereign. Crimes committed in the Dis- trict are not crimes against the District, but against the United States. Therefore, while the District may, in a sense, be called a state, it is such in a very qualified sense.' 132 U.S. at page 9, 10 S.Ct. at page 22. But there is no suggestion in that case that Congress lacks the authority under the Constitution to delegate the powers of home rule to the District.

The power of Congress over the District of Columbia relates not only to 'national power' but to 'all the powers of legislation which may be exercised by a state in dealing with its affairs'. Atlantic Cleaners & Dyers v. United States, 286 U.S. 427, 435, 52 S.Ct. 607, 609, 76 L.Ed. 1204. And see Stoutenburgh v. Hennick, supra, 129 U.S. at page 147, 9 S.Ct. 256. There is no reason why a state, if it so chooses, may not fashion its basic law so as to grant home rule or self-government to its municipal corporations. The Court in Barnes v. District of Columbia, 91 U.S. 540, 544, 23 L.Ed. 440, in construing the Organic Act of February 21, 1871, the one with which we are presently concerned, stated:

'A municipal corporation, in the exercise of all of its duties, including those most strictly local or internal, is but a department of the State. The legislature may give it all the powers such a being is capable of receiving, making it a miniature State within its locality.'

This is the theory which underlies the constitutional provisions of some states allowing cities to have home rule.⁶ So it is that decision after decision has held that the delegated power of municipalities is as broad as the police power of the state, except as that...