Hennington v. State of Georgia

• Decision Date: 18 May 1896
• Docket Number: No. 150,150
• Citation: 16 S.Ct. 1086,163 U.S. 299,41 L.Ed. 166
• Parties: HENNINGTON v. STATE OF GEORGIA
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

163 U.S. 299

16 S.Ct. 1086

41 L.Ed. 166

HENNINGTON

v STATE OF GEORGIA.

No. 150.

May 18, 1896.

Edward Colston, for plaintiff in error.

J. M. Terrell, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice HARLAN delivered the opinion of the court.

The plaintiff in error, Hennington, superintendent of transportation and having charge of the freight business of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company, was indicted, in the superior court of Dade county, Ga., for the offense of having, on the 15th day of March, 1891,—that being the Sabbath day, unlawfully run a freight train on the Alabama Great Southern Railroad in that county.

The statute under which the prosecution was instituted is as follows:

'Sec. 4578. If any freight train shall be run on any railroad in this state on the Sabbath day (known as Sunday), the superintendent of transportation of such railroad company, or the officer having charge of the business of that department of the railroad, shall be liable for indictment for a misdemeanor in each county through which such train shall pass, and, on conviction, shall be for each offense punished as prescribed in section 4310 of this Code. On such trial it shall not be necessary to al ege or prove the names of any of the employees engaged on such train, but the simple fact of the train being run. The defendant may justify himself by proof that such employees acted in direct violation of the orders and rules of the defendant: Provided, always, that whenever any train on any railroad in this state, having in such train one or more cars loaded with live stock, which train shall be delayed beyond schedule time, shall not be required to lay over on the line of road or route during Sunday, but may run on to the point where, by due course of shipment or consignment, the next stock pen on the route may be, where said animals may be fed and watered, according to the facilities usually afforded for such transportation. And it shall be lawful for all freight trains on the different railroads in this state, running over said roads on Saturday night, to run through to destination: Provided, the time of arrival, according to the schedule by which the train or trains started on the trip, shall not be later than eight o'clock on Sunday morning.' Code Ga. 1882.

Section 4310, referred to in the section just quoted, is as follows:

'Accessories after the fact, except where it is otherwise ordered in this Code, shall be punished by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars, imprisonment not to exceed six months, to work in the chain-gang on the public works, or on such other works as the county authorities may employ the chain-gang, not to exceed twelve months, and any one or more of these punishments may be ordered in the discretion of the judge: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall authorize the giving the control of convicts to private persons, or their employment by the county authorities in such mechanical pursuits as will bring the products of their labor into competition with the products of free labor.' Code Ga. 1882.

The defendant pleaded not guilty. He also pleaded specially certain facts which, he averred, showed that the statute of Georgia, as applied to this case, was in conflict with the provision of the constitution of the United States giving congress power to regulate commerce among the states.

At the trial the defendant admitted that he was superintendent of transportation of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad, the property of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company, a corporation of Alabama; that the line of that railroad began at the city of Chattanooga, Tenn., extended 9 miles through that state, when it entered the county of Dade, Ga., and ran through that county and over the line of road constructed and operated originally by the Wills Valley Railroad Company, into Alabama; thence through Alabama 245 miles, and into Mississippi, to the city of Meridian, where it connected with other roads; that said company was acting as a common carrier of passengers and freight along its line, using engines and cars propelled by steam; that, on the day mentioned in the in- dictment, the company, by its superintendent of transportation, the defendant, ran over its line of road from Chattanooga, Tenn., through Georgia and Alabama to Meridian, Miss., a train of cars laden with freight for points beyond the limits of Georgia, the train having been loaded in Tennessee with freight destined for points outside and beyond the limits of Georgia.

The defendant contended that the statute, if applied to these facts, was repugnant to the constitution of the United States. This contention was overruled, and the jury were instructed that, under the facts admitted, the defendant was guilty. The jury accordingly found him guilty as charged in the indictment.

The case was taken to the supreme court of Georgia, and it was assigned for error that the trial court refused to adjudge section 4578 of the Code of Georgia, when applied to the admitted facts, to be repugnant to the commerce clause of the constitution.

The supreme court of Georgia held the statute under which the prosecution was instituted to be a regulation of internal p lice, and not a regulation of commerce; that it was not in conflict with the constitution of the United States, even as to freight trains passing through the state from and to adjacent states, and laden exclusively with freight received on board before the trains entered Georgia and consigned to points beyond its limits.

As the judgment of the supreme court of Georgia denied to the defendant a right of immunity specially set up and claimed by him under the constitution of the United States, no question is or can be made as to the jurisdiction of this court to review that judgment.

If the statute in question, forbidding the running in Georgia of railroad freight trains on the Sabbath day, had been expressly limited to trains laden with domestic freight, it could not be regarded otherwise than as an ordinary police regulation, established by the state under its general power to protect the health and morals, and to promote the welfare, of its people.

From the earliest period in the history of Georgia it has been the policy of that state, as it was the policy of many of the original states, to prohibit all persons, under penalties, from using the Sabbath as a day for labor and for pursuing their ordinary callings. By an act of the colonial legislature of Georgia, approved March 4, 1762, it was provided: 'No tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer or other person whatsoever shall do or exercise any worldly labor, business or work of their ordinary callings, upon the Lord's day, or any part thereof (works of necessity or charity only excepted), and that every person being of the age of fifteen years or upwards, offending in the premises, shall, for every such offense, forfeit the sum of ten shillings. And that no person or persons whatsoever shall publicly cry, show forth, or expose to sale, any wares, merchandise, fruit, herbs, goods, or chattels whatsoever upon the Lord's day, or any part thereof, upon pain that every person so offending shall forfeit the same goods so cried or showed forth, or exposed to sale, or pay ten shillings.' 2 Cobb's Dig. Laws Ga. (New) p. 853. This act is substantially preserved in section 4579 of the Code of Georgia. And by an act approved February 11, 1850, it was provided 'that from and after the 1st day of March next it shall not be lawful for any company or individual to run any freight train or any car carrying freight upon any railroad now existing, or that may hereafter be made, in this state, on the Sabbath day; and any conductor or other person so running or assisting in running any train or car carrying freight on the Sabbath day shall each be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars.' 1 Cobb's Dig. Laws Ga. (New) p. 399. This act was amended by substituting 'superintendent of transportation' for 'conductor,' and in other particulars, not important to be mentioned, and as amended it constitutes section 4578 of the Criminal Code, under the heading of 'Offenses against Public Morality, Health, Police,' etc. Code Ga. 1882.

In what light is the statute of Georgia to be regarded? The well-settled rule is that, if a statute purporting to have been enacted to protect the public health, the public morals, or the public safety has no real or substantial relation to those objects, or is a palpable invasion of rights secured by the fundamental law, it is the duty of the courts to so adjudge, and thereby give effect to the constitution. Mugler v. State of Kansas, 123 U. S. 623, 661, 8 Sup. Ct. 273; Minnesota v. Barber, 136 U. S. 313, 320, 10 Sup. Ct. 862.

In our opinion, there is nothing in the legislation in question which suggests that it was enacted with the purpose to regulate interstate commerce, or with any other purpose than to prescribe a rule of civil duty for all who, on the Sabbath day, are within the territorial jurisdiction of the state. It is none the less a civil regulation because the day on which the running of freight trains is rohibited is kept by many under a sense of religious duty. The legislature having, as will not be disputed, power to enact laws to promote the order and to secure the comfort, happiness, and health of the people, it was within its discretion to fix the day when all labor, within the limits of the state, works of necessity and charity excepted, should cease. It is not for the judiciary to say that the wrong day was fixed, much less that the legislature erred when it assumed that the best interests of all required that one day in seven should be kept for the purposes of rest from ordinary labor. The fundamental law of the state committed these matters to the determination of the legislature. If the lawmaking power errs in such matters, its responsibility is to...