People of the State of New York Simon Lieberman v. John Van De Carr
Decision Date | 11 December 1905 |
Docket Number | No. 71,71 |
Citation | 199 U.S. 552,26 S.Ct. 144,50 L.Ed. 305 |
Parties | PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK ex rel. SIMON LIEBERMAN, Plff. in Err. , v. JOHN E. VAN DE CARR, Warden, etc., Deft. in Err |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Mr. Frank Moss for plaintiff in error.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 552-553 intentionally omitted] Mr. Theodore Connoly for defendant in error.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 553-557 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Day delivered the opinion of the court:
Simon Lieberman was arrested and held for trial by a magistrate of the city of New York, charged with violating § 66 of the sanitary code of New York city. After being committed to the custody of the warden of the city prison, plaintiff in error sued out a writ of habeas corpus.
At the hearing before a justice of the supreme court at special term, the writ was dismissed, and the prisoner remanded to the custody of the warden. Upon appeal to the appellate division of the supreme court, the order of the special term was affirmed. This judgment was affirmed by the court of appeals of the state of New York (175 N. Y. 440, 67 N. E. 913), and the case remitted to the supreme court, where judgment was entered on the remittitur. The case was then brought here by writ of error.
The section of the sanitary code complained of is as follows:
The violation of the sanitary code is made a misdemeanor. That the board of health had power to pass the sanitary code, which includes this section, is not open to question here, as it has been affirmatively decided in the state court. The objections on Federal grounds for our consideration are two-fold First, that the section under consideration devolves upon the board of health absolute and despotic power to grant or withhold permits to milk dealers, and is, therefore, not due process of law; second, that singling out the milk business for regulation is a denial of the equal protection of the laws to people engaged therein.
The record discloses that the plaintiff in error, engaged in selling milk in the city of New York before his arrest, had a permit, which was revoked by the board of health. He was thereafter found engaged through an agent in selling milk without a permit. In the testimony it appears, in a conversation between the plaintiff in error and an inspector in the department of health, the latter admitted that Lieberman's milk 'stood well.'
The right of the state to regulate certain occupations which may become unsafe or dangerous when unrestrained, in the exercise of the police power, with a view to protect the public health and welfare, has been so often and so recently before this court that it is only necessary to refer to some of the cases which sustain the proposition that the state has a right, by reasonable regulations, to protect the public health and safety. Boston Beer Co. v. Massachusetts, 97 U. S. 25, L. ed. 989; New Orleans Gaslight Co. v. Louisiana Light & H. P. & Mfg. Co. 115 U. S. 650, 29 L. ed. 516, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 252; Crowley v. Christensen, 137 U. S. 86, 34 L. ed. 620, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 13; Lawton v. Steele, 152 U. S. 133, 38 L. ed. 385, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 499; Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U. S. 11, 49 L. ed. 643, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 358; California Reduction Co. v. Sanitary Reduction Works, 199 U. S. 306, 50 L. ed. ——, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 100; Gardner v. Michigan, 199 U. S. 325, 50 L. ed. ——, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 106.
The contention of counsel for plaintiff in error is not that a business so directly affecting the health of the inhabitants of the city as the furnishing of milk may not be the subject of regulation under the authority of the state, but that the court of appeals of New York has sustained this right of regulation to the extent of authorizing the board of health to exercise arbitrary power in the selection of those it may see fit to permit to sell milk under the section quoted; and, thus construed, it works the deprivation of the plaintiff in error's liberty and property without due process of law. We do not so understand the decision of the highest court of New York. As we read it, the authority sustained is the grant of power to issue or withhold permits in the honest exercise of a reasonable discretion. In the opinion of the appellate division, whose judgment was affirmed in the court of appeals, it was said:
[81 App. Div. 132, 80 N. Y. Supp. 1108.]
The court of appeals, affirming the decision of the appellate division, did not speak with equal emphasis upon this point, but it leaves no doubt that it sustained the statute as authorizing the exercise of a reasonable discretion. While that court held that the discretion to grant or withhold permits might be vested in a board of health with opportunities to know and investigate local conditions and surroundings, it is further said:
'In the case before us the requirement of § 66 of the sanitary code, that the relator should not sell milk without a permit, is reasonable, and violates neither Federal nor state Constitution, is in accordance with law and long-established precedent.
'In the argument of this case several questions have been discussed that are not presented by the appeal. It is, for instance, argued that, even conceding a permit to be necessary, the provision that the holder is to be 'subject to the conditions thereof' cannot be sustained for a variety of reasons suggested.
'If the question was before us, the wellsettled canon of construction permits of no such argument.
'It is presumed that public officials will discharge their duties honestly and in accordance with the rules of law.'
We do not think that this language leaves any question as to the disposition of the highest court of New York to prevent the oppression of the citizen, or the deprivation of his rights, by an arbitrary and oppressive exercise of the power conferred. That this court will not interfere because the states have seen fit to give administrative discretion to local boards to grant or withhold licenses or permits to carry on trades or occupations, or perform acts which are properly the subject of regulation in the exercise of the reserved power of the states to protect the health and safety of its people, there can be no doubt. In Davis v. Massachusetts, 167 U. S. 43, 42 L. ed. 71, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 731, an ordinance of the city of Boston, providing that no person shall make any public address in or upon the public grounds, except in accordance with a permit from the mayor, was held not in conflict with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In Wilson v. Eureka City, 173 U....
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