Price v. Russell

296 F. 263, 3 Ohio Law. Abs. 416, 1924 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1763
District Court, N.D. Ohio·Decided February 5, 1924·No. No. 430·Published

Opinion

KIEEITS, District Judge.

The complainant, asserting that he is a physician regularly admitted to practice and practicing for a long time within the state of Ohio and pursuant to its laws, and alleging a course of conduct, past, present, and prospective, conformable to law, and that he has a duty in his profession to advise medicines and to apply medical treatment which, in his opinion, may be calculated to meet the requirements of his respective patients, and further his belief, based upon experienced observation and instruction, that the use of intoxicating liquors, to be taken internally, is, in certain cases, necessary for the proper treatment of patients, seeks the order of this court to restrain the defendants, who are severally officers of the United States government, specifically charged by law with the enforcement of the act known as the National Prohibition Act (Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, § 10138J4 et seq.), from applying to him the limitations of section 7, title 2 (section 10138%cc), thereof. Substantially the facts are identical with those of the case of Lambert v. Yellowley, 291 Fed. 640, and the relief sought is the same as therein granted by action of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. The same question was considered also by the District Court of Montana in United States v. Freund, 290 Fed. 411. If these cases are rightfully decided, the same conclusions should be reached here.

Concretely, the question is this: Has Congress, legislating under the Eighteenth Amendment, the power to limit the amount of intoxicating liquor or the alcoholic content thereof which a physician in good faith in the regular exercise of his profession deems necessary for a patient’s internal use? The language of section 7, title 2, of the National Prohibition Act attacked is that:

“Not more than a pint of spirituous liquor to be taken internally shall be prescribed for use by the same person within any period of ten days.”

[264]*264The amendment of November 23, 1921, supplementing the National Prohibition Act, provides, in section 2 (Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, § 10138%ccc), that in the aggregate not more than one-half pint of alcohol, as the alcoholic content of spirituous or vinous liquors, intended for internal administration, shall be prescribed for use by any patient within a period of 10 days. The cases above referred to coincide in the conclusion that these limitations are unreasonable, and not a .proper exercise of the authority to legislate given by the Eighteenth Amendment, and the decisions run upon the principle, among others, that because the amendment, by necessary implication, recognizes the possibility of a proper place for intoxicating liquors in medical treatment, the administration thereof cannot be limited; i. e., that the judgment of a reputable physician, arrived at in good faith, as to the necessities of his patient, is controlling. This is the position taken in the voluminous brief of the complainant herein.

It would expand this opinion to an inordinate length if we should discuss or cite the many cases, state and national, upon which the parties hereto respectively rely, for the defense has also advised the court by a brief even more elaborate and comprehensive and extended than that of the complainant. It is sufficient to outline a few of the fundamental principles which this court deems settled, with such controlling citations of "authority as we may select when citation seems to be indicated. . ,

The purpose and effect of the Eighteenth Amendment are well understood and considered. They are to put an end to the traffic in in-( toxicating liquors for beverage purposes. No argument is needed to the” conclusion that an incidental result is to clothe Congress with a police power which theretofore was exercisable only by the several states. Inherent in the enjoyment of such a power is the authority of Congress to legislate effectively, to make successfully operative the amendment, and that in so doing the legislation may prohibit acts otherwise and theoretically innocuous. We need not go behind the decisions in Purity Extract Co. v. Lynch, 226 U. S. 192, 33 Sup. Ct. 44, 57 L. Ed. 184, and Ruppert v. Caffey, 251 U. S. 264, 40 Sup. Ct. 141, 64 L. Ed. 260, for authority to this proposition. The decisions of the state courts, considering the powers conferred by state Constitutions, are substantially unanimous to this point. Congress, having been clothed with a particular police power, obviously should have the same complete scope for its exercise which state Legislatures enjoy under the same circumstances, and which, it has been decided by state courts and by the Supreme Court of the United States, reconsidering state decisions, was in fact the field of state legislation. National Prohibition Cases, 253 U. S. 350, 40 Sup. Ct. 486, 588, 64 L. Ed. 946. Any argument that there is any distinction in character between the power possessed by Congress over the subject of intoxicating liquor, in the exercise of its new police power and that possessed by the states is fundamentally unsound. It of necessity, and this is the purport of all the consideration of the highest courts, is a power of such breadth and comprehensiveness as to include in its legitimate application the control and regulation of all means by which the evil sought by it to be controlled may have operation. McCul[265]*265loch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 420, 4 L. Ed. 579; Rose v. United States (C. C. A.) 274 Fed. 245.

The second section of the Eighteenth Amendment says-that Congress and the several states shall have concurrent power to enforce the article by “appropriate” legislation. Of necessity, this means that the legislation may be as comprehensive when enacted by Congress as if enacted by states, and clearly appropriate legislation is that which will work to a complete and effective repression of what the amendment treats as a public evil. Among other cases, the latest are noted. Rhode Island v. Palmer, 253 U. S. 350, 40 Sup. Ct. 486, 588, 64 L. Ed. 946; Corneli v. Moore, 257 U. S. 493, 42 Sup. Ct. 176, 66 L. Ed. 332; Grogan v. Walker, 259 U. S. 80, 42 Sup. Ct. 423, 66 L. Ed. 836, 22 A. L. R. 1116.

Because legislative acts are presumed to be constitutional, it follows that Congress should be permitted to enjoy exclusively the right to judge the means to effect a constitutional purpose and the necessity which calls forth the employment of such means, and that its judgment must stand, unless we are able to see, too clearly to be subject to reasonable criticism, that its action is improvident and beyond legislative limitations. Interstate Railway v. Massachusetts, 207 U. S. 79, 28 Sup. Ct. 26, 52 L. Ed. 111, 12 Ann. Cas. 555; Hamilton v. Kentucky Distilleries, 251 U. S. 146, 40 Sup. Ct. 106, 64 L. Ed. 194; Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U. S. 623, 8 Sup. Ct. 273, 31 L. Ed. 205; Williams v. Arkansas, 217 U. S. 79

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Price v. Russell, 296 F. 263, 3 Ohio Law. Abs. 416, 1924 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1763 (N.D. Ohio 1924).

296 F. 263 (Price v. Russell) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

M'culloch v. State of Maryland
17 U.S. 316 (Supreme Court, 1819)
Mugler v. Kansas
123 U.S. 623 (Supreme Court, 1887)
Dent v. West Virginia
129 U.S. 114 (Supreme Court, 1889)
Gray v. State of Connecticut
159 U.S. 74 (Supreme Court, 1895)
Williams v. Arkansas
217 U.S. 79 (Supreme Court, 1910)
Watson v. Maryland
218 U.S. 173 (Supreme Court, 1910)
Purity Extract & Tonic Co. v. Lynch
226 U.S. 192 (Supreme Court, 1912)
Hamilton v. Kentucky Distilleries & Warehouse Co.
251 U.S. 146 (Supreme Court, 1919)
Jacob Ruppert v. Caffey
251 U.S. 264 (Supreme Court, 1920)
National Prohibition Cases
253 U.S. 350 (Supreme Court, 1920)
Corneli v. Moore
257 U.S. 491 (Supreme Court, 1922)
Grogan v. Hiram Walker & Sons, Ltd.
259 U.S. 80 (Supreme Court, 1922)
In Re Hixson
214 P. 677 (California Court of Appeal, 1923)
Marks v. State
48 So. 864 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1909)
Gray v. Connecticut
159 U.S. 74 (Supreme Court, 1895)
Rose v. United States
274 F. 245 (Sixth Circuit, 1921)
United States v. Freund
290 F. 411 (D. Montana, 1923)
Lambert v. Yellowley
291 F. 640 (S.D. New York, 1923)