Murphy v. People of the State of California

Decision Date07 June 1912
Docket NumberNo. 204,204
PartiesJ. L. MURPHY, Plff. in Err., v. PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Messrs. Alfred S. Austrian and Levy Mayer for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 624-626 intentionally omitted] Messrs. John E. Carson and Lynn Helm for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 626 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Lamar delivered the opinion of the court:

In 1908 the city of South Pasadena, California, in pursuance of police power conferred by general law, passed an ordinance which prohibited any person from keeping or maintaining any hall or room in which billiard or pool tables were kept for hire or public use, provided it should not be construed to prevent the proprietor of a hotel using a general register for guests, and having twenty-five bedrooms and upwards, from maintaining billiard tables for the use of regular guests only of such hotel, in a room provided for that purpose.

The plaintiff in error was arrested on the charge of violating this ordinance. His application for a writ of habeas corpus was denied by the court of appeals and supreme court of the state. Ex parte Murphy, 8 Cal. App. 440, 97 Pac. 199, 155 Cal. 322, 100 Pac. 1134. Thereafter the case came on for trial in the recorder's court, where the defendant testified that, at a time when there was no ordinance on the subject, he had leased a room in the business part of the city, and at large expense fitted it up with the necessary tables and equipments; that the place was conducted in a peaceable and orderly manner; that no betting or gambling or unlawful acts of any kind were permitted; and 'that there was nothing in the conduct of the business which had any tendency to immorality, or could in the least affect the health, comfort, safety, or morality of the community or those who frequented said place of business.' This evidence was, on motion, excluded, and testimony of other witnesses to the same effect was rejected.

The defendant was found guilty and sentenced to pay a fine, or, in default thereof, to be imprisoned in the county jail. The conviction was affirmed by the superior court of the county, the highest court to which he could appeal. The case was then brought here by writ of error, the plaintiff contending that the ordinance violated the provisions of the 14th Amendment, claiming, in the first place, that in preventing him from maintaining a billiard hall it deprived him of the right to follow an occupation that is not a nuisance per se, and which therefore could not be absolutely prohibited.

The 14th Amendment protects the citizen in his right to engage in any lawful business, but it does not prevent legislation intended to regulate useful occupations which, because of their nature or location, may prove injurious or offensive to the public. Neither does it prevent a municipality from prohibiting any business which is inherently vicious and harmful. But, between the useful business which may be regulated and the vicious business which can be prohibited lie many nonuseful occupations which may or may not be harmful to the public, according to local conditions, or the manner in which they are conducted.

Playing at billiards is a lawful amusement; and keeping a billiard hall is not, as held by the supreme court of California on plaintiff's application for habeas corpus, a nuisance per se. But it may become such; and the regulation or prohibition need not be postponed until the evil has become flagrant.

That the keeping of a billiard hall has a harmful tendency is a fact requiring no proof, and incapable of being controverted by the testimony of the plaintiff that his business was lawfully conducted, free from gaming or anything which could affect the morality of the community or of his patrons. The fact that...

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154 cases
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    ...of the law requirements may be attacked only by a person of the alleged unconstitutionally constituted class. (Murphy v. California, 225 U.S. 623, 32 S.Ct. 697, 699, 56 L.Ed. 1229; In re Willing, 12 Cal.2d 591, 597, 86 P.2d 663; Wholesale Tobacco Dealers v. National etc. Co., 11 Cal.2d 634,......
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