Shaufler v. State

15 Ind. 448, 1860 Ind. LEXIS 484
Indiana Supreme Court·Decided January 24, 1860·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

Perkins, J.

Conviction for retailing, under the liquor law of 1859. The case is appealed to this Court, where a reversal of the judgment is sought, not on erroneous rulings of the Court upon points of practice, but on the ground that the law itself is invalid.

Questions, almost without number, are raised and ably-discussed ; some of which do not legitimately arise in this case, but do in others now pending before us; and all of which must be sooner or later decided, and will, therefore, be now passed upon.

1. It is objected that no exceptions are made, in the law, of sales for medicinal or sacramental purposes. The Court will make the exceptions where proper. Donnell v. The State, 2 Ind. 658; Ind. Dig. 379.

2. It is said the law confers special privileges. Sec. 23 of art. 1 of the Constitution declares, that “privileges and immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens, may not be granted.”

How who are citizens within the meaning of this provision? Evidently none but those who participated in the formation of the government, or have a right to participate in its administration. These are, white male citizens of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years, and white males of foreign birth, of the like age, who have declared their intentions, under the act of Congress, to become citizens of the United States, and have resided in this State six months. Sec. 2, -art. 2 of the State Constitution. Quaere: Whether these latter are citizens? It is said, States may confer privileges on those who are not citizens. This latter class are not citizens of the United States; nor can they become so till after five years’ residence therein; because, till [451] that period has elapsed, they can not take the oath of aliegiance to this government.

The term “citizen” has come to us derived from antiquity. It appears to have been used in the Roman government to designate a person who had the freedom of the city, and the right to exercise all political and civil privileges of the government. There was also, at Rome, a partial citizenship, including civil but not political rights. ■ Complete citizenship embraced both. Adams’ Roman Antiquities, pp. 44, 60, et seq.; 2 Kent’s Com. p. 76, note; Gilles’ Greece, 163; Smith’s Thucydides, vol. 1, p. 2, note.

Returning, then, from this digression, we may inquire, what are the conditions imposed, and privileges conferred, by the liquor act in question ? Substantially, they are that the licensee must be an inhabitant, not citizen (if the words are not used synonymously); must be of the male sex; must be white; must be twenty-one years of age; must be of good moral character; must pay fifty dollars; give bond, &c. Acts of 1859, p. 202. Now, all persons, upon filling these conditions, these “ same terms,” can obtain license. Drapert v. The State, 14 Ind. 123. The law does not seem to conflict with the provisions of the Constitution cited. See, The Bank v. The City of New Albany, 11 Ind. 141. Holden v. James, 11 Mass. R. 396; Walk. Amer. Law, pp. 186, 187 and note.

3. It is claimed that the fee for license, fifty dollars, is a tax upon a particular pursuit, and as such is prohibited by § 1 of art. 10 of our Constitution, providing for a uniform rate of taxation. But it has been decided that that section relates to the general levy alone. The Bank v. The City of New Albany, supra; Anderson v. The Kerns Draining Co., 14 Ind. 199. See, as to unlimited taxing power, Ind. Dig., § 16, p. 761. The license upon retailing is an excise. 1 Story outlie Const., p. 670.

An excise is an indirect tax; but, in this case, taxation was-not the object of imposing it, and the Legislature was not bound to appropriate its proceeds to any object for which the State is forbidden to raise money by local or special taxation. It was imposed in the exercise of the rightful police power of [452] the State, and is an incident of a legitimate police regulation. Hence, it is not within the prohibition of the 22d section of the 4th article of the Constitution, prohibiting local and spe^axa^on ^01' State purposes. See 7 How. 283; 2 Story-on the Constitution, p. 10 et segt.

4. It is urged that § 11 of the liquor law in question, prohibiting the sale or giving away to minors, is not within the title of the act. That it is within it has already been decided. The State v. Adamson, 14 Ind. 296. But the defendant may show reasonable ground of belief that the minor was an adult. The State v. Kalb, 14 Ind. 403.

5. It is denied that § 14 of the act, giving jurisdiction of the offenses created by it to the grand jury, is valid.

This point we regard as already settled by Reed v. The State, 12 Ind. 641. It is there held that certain felonies may be prosecuted in the Circuit or Common Pleas Court, and that i'f prosecuted in the former, they must be so upon indictment; if in the latter, upon information. It is decided, in short, that the doctrine of uniformity in the mode of prosecution does not apply to the crime itself, but to the particular Court in which the prosecution is made. All criminal prosetions, carried on in a given Court, must be by a uniform mode; but it is in the discretion of the Legislature, when no constitutional regulations interpose, to prescribe the Court, or Courts, in which any or all crimes shall be prosecuted. This results from the fact, that the new Constitution has authorized the Legislature to adopt such new modes for the initiation of prosecutions of all crimes,- as its wisdom should deem expedient, within, of course, the general restrictions of the Constitution. Art. 7, § 17,

But it is argued, not without much plausibility, that 2 R. S., § 14, p. 388, conferring jurisdiction of felonies upon grand juries only, and thereby upon Circuit Courts, is not repealed by the provisions of the liquor law of 1859, extending the jurisdiction of those bodies to certain misdemeanors.

Sec. 8 art. 7 of the State Constitution ordains that Circuit Courts “Shall have such civil and criminal jurisdiction as may be prescribed by law.”

In Indiana, then, the mere creation of a Court does not [453] confer any jurisdiction; and jurisdiction is granted, not simply restrained, by statute. Tliis shows that the word “ only,” in the statute conferring jurisdiction, was without meaning.' The grant was of jurisdiction oyer felonies, and as the tribunal has such jurisdiction only “ as is conferred by law,” it took no more, even in the absence of the restrictive term.

The case, then, stands thus: The statute of 1852 gave jurisdiction of felonies. That jurisdiction remains. The statute of 1859 confers jurisdiction of misdemeanors. This does not conflict or interfere with the jurisdiction previously •granted. The statutes stand together. But, even suppose they conflict, or that one, by implication, repeals the other, such repeal is not within any constitutional prohibition,- and need not be specially embraced in the title of the act. Spencer v. The State, 5 Ind. 11.

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Shaufler v. State, 15 Ind. 448, 1860 Ind. LEXIS 484 (Ind. 1860).

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