Ex parte Kinnebrew

35 F. 52, 1888 U.S. App. LEXIS 2085

Opinion

Pardee, J.

The general “local option” act of the legislature of the state of Georgia, approved September 18, 1885, as set forth in the agreed statement of facts on file, in so far as it discriminates in favor of domestic wines, and against the importation and sale of wines manufactured in other states and foreign countries, is in violation of the constitution of the United States. Welton v. Missouri, 91 U. S. 275; Tiernan v. Rinker, 102 U. S. 123; Webber v. Virginia, 103 U. S. 344; Salzenstein v. Mavis, 91 Ill. 391; Vines v. State, 67 Ala. 73; McCreary v. State, 73 Ala. 481. The domestic wines mentioned in the eighth section of the act arc such wines as are made within the state, and probably from fruits grown therein. See Com. v. Giltinan, 64 Pa. St. 100; Laws Ga. 1887, p. 21. If it is considered that the sixth section of the act prohibits the sale of imported wines, and wines made in other states, under the head of intoxicating liquors, or other drinks which, if drank to excess, will produce intoxication, while the eighth section permits the salo of domestic wines, then the unconstitutional discrimination is apparent on the face of the act, and it can only be eliminated by striking from the act the exception in favor of domestic wines; or, by construction, inserting in the act an exception in favor of imported wines and wines from other states. The one means to strike out something the legislature did enact, and the other is to insert something that the legislature did not enact, in terms,-but is [56] the legal implication arising from" what the legislature did enact. In McCreary v. State, supra, the supreme court of Alabama, following the case of Powell v. State, 69 Ala. 10, and citing Tiernan v. Rinker, 102 U. S. 123, held, in a case strictly analogous to the present, that the illegal proviso or exception of the statute might be stricken out, and the remainder permitted to stand unaffected thereby, and thus affirmed a conviction for doing that which the legislature of Alabama enacted might he done. In Spraigue v Thompson, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 988, the supreme court of the United States, in reversing the supreme court of Georgia in the Pilotage Cases, 69 Ga. 409, says in regard to the principle of construction which disregards illegal exceptions, and leaves the rest of the law to stand as a separable part of the statute;

“The insuperable difficulty with the application of that principle of construction to the present instance is that, by rejecting the exceptions intended by the legislature of Georgia, the statute is made to enact what confessedly the legislature never meant. It confers upon the statute a positive operation beyond the legislative intent, and beyond what any one can say it would have enacted, in view of the illegality of the exceptions. ”

The Case of Tiernan v. Rinker, supra, passed upon a tax law of Texas requiring an annual tax to be paid upon the occupation of liquor selling generally, but exempting wines or beer manufactured in the state, and the supreme court held "that the statute was inoperative so far as it made a discrimination against wines and beer imported from other states; that the sale of these products must stand on the same footing as to tax as the wines and beer manufactured in the state, but that there was no objection to the tax as laid on the sellers of brandies and whiskies and other alcoholic drinks. It appears to be doubtful that the legislature of Georgia intended the said act to be separable and to stand as .the law-makers’ will, without the protection therein afforded to Georgia wines. See subsequent act, approved September 12, 1887, taxing dealers in domestic wines. Laws Ga. 1887, p. 21. And no one can authoritatively say that, without such protection to Georgia wines, the people would have given the majority vote necessary to put the act in force; nor can any one say that with a provision exempting all wines that the legislature would have enacted, or the people would have adopted, the act. In the case of Weil v. Calhoun, 25 Fed. Rep. 865, decided in this court in 1885, Judge McCay, in commenting on this same Georgia law, and the unconstitutional discrimination, said:

“It is possible, as I think, to separate this obnoxious clause—protecting domestic wines from the operation of the act—from the rest of it; declare it void, and let the broad prohibition clause have its full effect. I am not, however, as clear on this branch of the subject as I would like to be.”

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Ex parte Kinnebrew, 35 F. 52, 1888 U.S. App. LEXIS 2085 (circtndga 1888).

35 F. 52 (Ex parte Kinnebrew) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Welton v. Missouri
91 U.S. 275 (Supreme Court, 1876)
Tiernan v. Rinker
102 U.S. 123 (Supreme Court, 1880)
Webber v. Virginia
103 U.S. 344 (Supreme Court, 1881)
Hopt v. People of Territory of Utah
110 U.S. 574 (Supreme Court, 1884)
Thompson v. Spraigue, Soulle & Co.
69 Ga. 409 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1883)
Vines v. State
67 Ala. 73 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1880)
Powell v. State
69 Ala. 10 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1881)
Salzenstein v. Mavis
91 Ill. 391 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1878)