Weeds v. United States

• Decision Date: 28 February 1921
• Docket Number: No. 558,558
• Citation: 255 U.S. 109,41 S.Ct. 306,65 L.Ed. 537
• Parties: WEEDS, Inc., et al. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

255 U.S. 109

41 S.Ct. 306

65 L.Ed. 537

WEEDS, Inc., et al.

v UNITED STATES.

No. 558.

Argued Oct. 18, 19, and 20, 1920.

Decided Feb. 28, 1921.

Mr. Charles E. Hughes, of New Work City, for plaintiffs in erro.

Mr. Chief Justice WHITE delivered the opinion of the Court.

The plaintiffs in error, having been convicted and sentenced under an indictment containing eight counts, one of which, the sixth, was eliminated at the trial, prosecute this direct writ of error. All the counts charged violations of the fourth section of the Lever Act (Comp. St. 1918, Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, § 3115 1/8 ff)—the first, a conspiracy under the section to exact and to aid and abet in exacting excessive prices for certain necessaries, that is, articles of wearing apparel; and each of the others a specific sale of such an article at an unjust and unreasonable rate or charge.

The indictment was demurred to because of its repugnancy to the Constitution upon these grounds: (1) Want of power in Congress because of a state of peace; (2) that the provisions in question were so vague and wanting in standard of criminality as to constitute a mere delegation by Congress of legislative power in violation of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments, and, furthermore, because by virtue of the exemptions which they contained, they denied to defendants the equal protection of the laws. The demurrer was overruled and at the trial which followed the grounds of demurrer were again held to be without merit and the questions which it presented were saved and are pressed in the argument at bar as grounds for reversal.

As the only difference between the charges in the Cohen Grocery Co. Case, 255 U. S. 81, 41 Sup. Ct. 298, 65 L. Ed. ——, and those in this, is the fact that here in one of the counts there was a charge of conspiracy to exact excessive prices, it follows that the ruling in the Cohen Case is decisive here, unless the provision as to conspiracy to exact excessive prices is sufficiently specific to create a standard and to inform the accused of the accusation against him and thus make it not amenable to the ruling in the Cohen Case. But, as we are of the opinion that there is no ground for such distinction, but, on the contrary, that the charge as to conspiracy to exact excessive prices is equally as wanting in standard and equally as vague as the provision as to unjust and unreasonable rates and charges dealt with in the Cohen Case, it follows, for reasons stated in that case, that the judgment in this must be reversed and the case remanded, with directions to set aside the sentence and quash the indictment.

It is so ordered.

Mr. Justice PITNEY and Mr. Justice BRANDEIS concur in the result.

Mr. Justice DAY took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.

Mr. Justice PITNEY, concurring.

In this case, as in No. 324, United States v. L. Cohen Grocery Co., 255 U. S. 81, 41 Sup. Ct. 298, 65 L. Ed. ——, while concurring in the judgment of the court, I am unable to yield assent to the grounds upon which it is based.

Most of the counts in the indictment upon which plaintiffs in error were convicted allege specific violations of that provision of the Act of October 22, 1919 (chapter 80, tit. 1, § 2, 41 Stat. 297, 298, amending section 4 of the Act of August 10, 1917, c. 53, 40 Stat. 276, 277), which declares it unlawful 'to make any unjust or unreasonable rate or charge, in handling or dealing in or with any necessaries'; the alleged offenses having consisted in the sale of specific articles of...