State v. Carter
| Decision Date | 22 June 1925 |
| Docket Number | 27263 |
| Citation | 105 So. 247,159 La. 121 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE v. CARTER. In re CARTER |
Conviction and sentence annulled, and relator ordered discharged.
Theus Grisham & Davis, of Monroe, for applicant.
Percy Saint, Atty. Gen., E. R. Schowalter, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Wm. J. Hammon, Dist. Atty., of Jonesboro, for the State.
O'NIELL C. J.
The only question in this case is whether the provisions of the Act 120 of 1921 which make it a misdemeanor to drive a passenger motor transfer having a carrying capacity exceeding seven passengers at a speed exceeding 25 miles an hour without a special permit from the Louisiana highway commission, is unconstitutional.
Relator was prosecuted and convicted on a bill of information charging that he "did willfully, feloniously, and maliciously drive a passenger motor transfer automobile having a passenger carrying capacity of more than seven passengers upon a public highway at a greater rate of speed than 25 miles per hour, without a special permit from the Louisiana highway commission, contrary to the form of the statute," etc.
The eleventh section of the Act 120 of 1921, p. 284, declares:
"Except by special permit from the commission [meaning the Louisiana highway commission], no passenger motor transfer of more than seven passengers carrying capacity shall exceed a speed limit of twenty-five miles per hour."
The second paragraph of the thirty-fifth section of the statute declares:
"That any person convicted of the violation of any provision of this act, or any person convicted of violating any rule or regulation made by the Louisiana highway commission, under the authority of this act, shall be guilty of [a] misdemeanor and upon conviction may for the first offense, by [meaning be] punished by a fine or [meaning of] not more than one hundred ($ 100.00) dollars or imprisoned for not more than thirty days; and for the second or any subsequent offenses, by a fine not exceeding five hundred ($ 500.00) dollars or imprisonment for not more than ninety days, provided that in either case the court may in its discretion impose both fine and imprisonment."
Relator filed a motion to quash the bill of information, contending that the eleventh section of the statute violated the equal protection clause in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The motion was overruled, and a bill of exceptions was reserved.
Our opinion is that the eleventh section of the statute is violative of the Fourteenth Amendment. A statute or an ordinance which, instead of prescribing a uniform rule of action, undertakes to vest in a public officer or commission the authority to discriminate in favor of or against persons engaged in a legitimate business or occupation or enjoying a common right by granting or withholding a license or permit or approval,...
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