Chapman v. Boynton

4 F. Supp. 43, 1933 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1415
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedMay 13, 1933
DocketNo. 1734
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 4 F. Supp. 43 (Chapman v. Boynton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chapman v. Boynton, 4 F. Supp. 43, 1933 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1415 (D. Kan. 1933).

Opinion

HOPKINS, District Judge.

This controversy involves the validity of the “Bone Dry” intoxicating liquor law of Kansas.

Plaintiff seeks a restraining order against the defendants, and asks for the assembling of a three-judge court to hear the ease on application for an interlocutory injunction.

Roland Boynton, Attorney General for Kansas, has filed a motion to dismiss the bill for want of equity and lack of jurisdiction of this court to hear the cause.

The plaintiff’s bill prays that the defendants be enjoined from enforcing the intoxicating- liquor laws of Kansas (article 21, chapter 21, of the Revised Statutes of the state of Kansas 1923 [21 — 2101 et seq.]), in so far as such laws prohibit the sale of malt beverages containing not more than 3.2 per centum of alcohol by weight. Plaintiff alleges and contends that he has secured a dealer’s permit in fermented liquors from the collector of internal revenue for the District of Kansas, and that, in so far as the intoxicating liquor laws of Kansas prohibit the sale of such malt beverages, they are unconstitutional and void, being repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment and to clause 2 of article 6 of the Constitution of the United States.

Plaintiff’s hill shows that all of the parties to the action, are residents and citizens of the state of Kansas.

The defendants contend that the plaintiff’s bill fails to present a substantial federal question, and, since there is no diversity of citizenship shown on the face of the bill, the court is without jurisdiction to hear the cause, and, such being the case, the District Judge may rule on the motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s bill without convening a three-judge court for that purpose.

Does the plaintiff’s bill on its face disclose a lack of jurisdiction? And, if there is a failure of jurisdiction, is it necessary to convene a three-judge court for the purpose of dismissing it?

It appears plain, there being an absence of diversity of citizenship, that, if the bill fails to present a substantial federal question, this court is without jurisdiction, and the hill must fall of its own weight. There is, therefore, but one question before this court, Does the plaintiff’s attack upon the constitutionality of the intoxicating liquor laws of the state of Kansas present a substantial federal question in view of the previous decisions and construction of the intoxicating liquor laws of the state of Kansas and of the Federal Prohibitory Act? This, I think, must he answered in the negative.

The constitutionality of the intoxicating liquor laws of the state of Kansas has been determined by her Supreme Court and by the Supreme Court of the United States. In [45]*45Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U. S. 623, 8 S. Ct. 273, 31 L. Ed. 205, it was held:

“The Prohibition Law of the State of Kansas is not in conflict with that clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, which provides that
“ ‘No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.’
“It belongs to the legislative department to exert what are known as the police powers of the State, and to determine, primarily, what measures are appropriate or needful for the protection of the public morals, the public health, or the public safety — subject to the power of the courts to adjudge whether any particular law is an invasion of rights secured by the Constitution.” Syl. pars. 1 and 3.

See, also, State v. Sherman, 81 Kan. 874, 107 P. 33, 135 Am. St. Rep. 403. Also appendix attached to this opinion, giving digest of territorial and state laws of Kansas.

The fact that Congress has seen fit to liberalize the federal prohibitory liquor laws authorized by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution by allowing an increased alcoholic content of beer does not, in my opinion, affeet the existing liquor laws of the several states. The National Prohibition Act (27 USCA § 1 et seq.) passed by Congress in 1919' provided that intoxicating liquors within the meaning of the act were such liquors that contained in excess of one-half of 1 per cent, of alcohol by volume. That act was held to be constitutional. The states have concurrent jurisdiction with the federal government to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution by appropriate legislation.

The Eighteenth Amendment specifically provided that: “The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this Article by appropriate Legislation.”

The constitutionality or validity of a state’s statute is not affected by the mere fact that it has a broader scope than the provisions of the National Prohibition Act upon the same subject. Van Oster v. Kansas, 272 U. S. 465, 47 S. Ct. 133, 71 L. Ed. 354, 47 A. L. R. 1044.

A similar question was under consideration in McCormick & Co. v. Brown, 286 U. S. 131, 52 S. Ct. 522, 527, 76 L. Ed. 1017, in which the court quoted from United States v. Lanza, 260 U. S. 377, 43 S. Ct. 141, 67 L. Ed. 314, as follows: “In effect the second section of the Eighteenth Amendment put an end to restrictions upon the state’s power arising out of the federal Constitution, and left her free to enact prohibition laws applying to all transactions within her limits. To be sure, the first section of the amendment took from the states all power to authorize acts falling within its prohibition, but it did not cut down or displace prior state laws not inconsistent with it. * ® * We have here two sovereignties, deriving power from different sources, capable of dealing with the same subject-matter within the same territory. Each may, without interference by the other, enact laws to secure prohibition, with the limitation that no legislation can give validity to acts prohibited by the amendment. Each government in determining what shall be an offense against its peace and dignity is exercising its own sovereignty, not that of the other.”

The McCormick Case, supra, also laid at rest the plaintiff’s claim that his right to sell malt beverages in Kansas in opposition to the Kansas intoxicating liquor laws has been strengthened by the fact that he has obtained from the collector of internal revenue for the District of Kansas a retail dealer’s permit in fermented liquors. It was there held that the fact a federal permit had been issued for the sale of certain preparations containing alcohol did not prevent the state from placing additional restriction upon the sale of such preparations.

The intoxicating liquor law of Kansas provides that:

“It shall be unlawful for any person to directly or indirectly manufacture, sell, barter, or give away, furnish or keep or have in his possession for personal use or otherwise, any spirituous, malt, vinous, fermented or other intoxicating liquors. * * * ” R. S. 21 — 2101, Laws 1917, ch. 215, § 1.
“All liquors mentioned in Laws of 1917, ch. 215, sec. 1, as amended, shall be construed and held to be intoxicating liquors within the meaning of this act.” R. S. 21 — 2109.

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4 F. Supp. 43, 1933 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1415, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chapman-v-boynton-ksd-1933.