Hygrade Provision Co v. Sherman Lewis Fox Co v. Same Satz v. Same 106

• Decision Date: 05 January 1925
• Docket Number: 105,Nos. 104,s. 104
• Citation: 69 L.Ed. 402,266 U.S. 497,45 S.Ct. 141
• Parties: HYGRADE PROVISION CO., Inc., et al. v. SHERMAN, Atty. Gen. of New York, et al. LEWIS & FOX CO. v. SAME. SATZ v. SAME. , and 106
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

266 U.S. 497

45 S.Ct. 141

69 L.Ed. 402

HYGRADE PROVISION CO., Inc., et al.

v SHERMAN, Atty. Gen. of New York, et al.

LEWIS & FOX CO.

v. SAME.

SATZ

v. SAME.

Nos. 104, 105, and 106.

Argued Nov. 20 and 21, 1924.

Decided Jan. 5, 1925.

Mr. David L. Podell, of New York City, for appellants.

Messrs. S. H. Hofstadter and Felix C. Benvenga, both of New York City, for appellees.

Mr. Justice SUTHERLAND delivered the opinion of the Court.

These appeals challenge the constitutionality of chapters 580 and 581, 2 Laws of New York 1922, pp. 1314, 1315, as being in contravention of the due process and equal protection of the law clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States. So far as these cases are concerned, the statutes are substantially alike, and it is enough to refer to chapter 581 which provides that any person who with intent to defraud:

'* * * 4. Sells or exposes for sale any meat or meat preparation and falsely represents the same to be kosher, or as having been prepared under and of a product or products sanctioned by the orthodox Hebrew religious requirements; or falsely represents any food product or the contents of any package or container to be so constituted and prepared, by having or permitting to be inscribed thereon the word 'kosher' in any language; or sells or exposes for sale in the same place of business both kosher and nonkosher meat or meat preparations who fails to indicate on his window signs and all display advertising, in block letters at least four inches in hight, 'kosher and nonkosher meat sold here'; or who exposes for sale in any show window or place of business both kosher and nonkosher meat or meat products who fails to display over such meat or meat preparation so exposed a sign in block letters at least four inches in height reading 'kosher meat,' or 'nonkosher meat,' as the case may be,' is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Separate suits were brought against appellees to enjoin them from proceeding against appellants for any alleged failure to comply with the foregoing statutory requirements or from making any threats of prosecuting or from conducting any prosecutions by reason of any failure to label any of the meats sold as 'not kosher' or otherwise interfering with or seeking to prevent the full, free and unhampered sale of their products without labeling, etc., and from injuring their business 'by compelling it to be discredited in standing and reputation, and by having its merchandise wrongfully branded as 'nonkosher' in accordance with the requirements of said enactments.'

The several bills allege that appellees 'have threatened to prosecute all complaints against persons or concerns engaged as manufacturers, dealers, retailers, or otherwise in the sale of raw or prepared meat commodities, who are charged with violating the statutes'; that by reason of these threats and of the fear inspired by the requirements of the statutes, when called upon at their peril to determine whether their products are kosher and label the same, appellants have decided and will continue to decide that all products sold by them are not kosher; that such determination has been and will be induced by the fear that some judge or jury might determine that the rabbinical law or the customs, traditions, and precedents of the orthodox Hebrew religious requirements necessitate that even such meats as appellants sell as kosher are not kosher. The bills contain allegations tending to show the impossibility, or, at least, the great difficulity, of determining with certainty what is kosher according to the rabbinical law and the customs, traditions, and precedents of the orthodox Hebrew religious requirements; but appellants allege that whenever they could possibly determine in advance whether any meat commodity in their honest belief might be called kosher, they have sold the same as kosher, but not otherwise. The bills aver that irreparable injury to appellants' business, property, good will, and reputation will result. It does not appear that any of the appellants has ever been prosecuted for a violation of the statutes or has ever been specifically threatened with prosecution, the threats alleged being, in substance, simply that all violators of the statutes will be prosecuted. The District Court, in each case, after a hearing upon an order to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not issue, upheld the statutes, denied the injunction and dismissed the bill.

The general rule is that equity will not interfere to prevent the enforcement of a criminal statute even though unconstitutional. Packard v. Banton, 264 U. S. 140, 143, 44 S. Ct. 257, 68 L. Ed. 596; In re Sawyer, 124 U. S. 200, 209-211, 8 S. Ct. 482, 31 L. Ed. 402; Davis & Farnum Manufacturing Co. v. Los Angeles, 189 U. S. 207, 217, 23 S. Ct. 498, 47 L. Ed. 778. But appellants seek to bring themselves within an exception to this general rule, namely, that a court of equity will interfere to prevent criminal prosecutions under an unconstitutional statute when that is necessary to effectually protect property rights. Packard v. Banton, supra; Terrace v. Thompson, 263 U. S. 197, 214, 44 S. Ct. 15, 68 L. Ed. 255. That these bills disclose such a case of threatened actual and imminent injury as to come within the exception is not beyond doubt. But upon a liberal view of the decisions above cited and other decisions of this court (see Kennington v. Palmer, 255...