United States v. 288 Packages of Merry World Tobacco

103 F. 453, 1900 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 313
CourtDistrict Court, D. West Virginia
DecidedJune 28, 1900
StatusPublished

This text of 103 F. 453 (United States v. 288 Packages of Merry World Tobacco) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. West Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. 288 Packages of Merry World Tobacco, 103 F. 453, 1900 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 313 (wvad 1900).

Opinion

JACKSON, District Judge.

The United States filed an information on the 17th day of October, 1898, in this district, against 288 packages of Merry World Smoking Tobacco. The information charges that these packages contained, in violation of law, what is known as the “Merry World Tobacco Coupon,” offering premiums to the holders of these coupons, the amount of which was to be determined upon the number of coupons returned to the manufacturer, it is alleged that the placing of any article, other than that authorized by the statute of the United States, in such packages, was a violation of the tenth section of the act of July 24, 1897, amending section 3394, Rev. St. U. S. It is admitted that each package of tobacco contained one of these coupons, and it is here stipulated that all informalities and omissions in the pleadings are waived by counsel of the parties to this proceeding. This information is founded upon the third clause of section 10, Act July 24, 1897, amending section 3394, Rev. St., which declares that “none of the packages of smoking tobacco and fine cut chewing tobacco and cigarettes prescribed by law shall be permitted to have packed in, or attached to, or connected with, them, any article or thing whatsoever, other than the manufacturers’ wrappers and labels, the internal revenue stamp and the tobacco or cigarettes, respectively, put up therein, on which tax is required to be paid under the internal revenue laws.” It is unnecessary at this time to review the history of the legislation of congress relating to the various acts passed known as the “Internal Revenue Laws.” Congress, in its wisdom, saw flt to resort to this mode of taxation for the purpose of raising revenue to defray the expenses of the government. It must-be conceded at the threshold of the discussion that to congress alone belonged the power to enact laws for raising revenue for the support and maintenance of the government. Section 8 of article 1 of the [454]*454constitution expressly declares that congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes. This is an express grant which confers this power upon congress alone, and such power is independent of the co-ordinate branches of the government. If, then, under the constitution, congress alone possesses this power, it follows that it alone possesses the power to.provide the manner, the form, and the means by which taxes are to be levied, provided that congress does not exceed the grant of power conferred under the constitution.

Assuming this position to be correct, the first question for consideration is, is the statute upon which this proceeding is founded within the legitimate sphere of the legislative power of congress ? Questions of kindred character, involving the questions now under consideration, have been so often reviewed and passed upon by the supreme court of the United States that it would seem to be almost a work of supererogation upon the part of this court, at this late day, to enter the domain of discussion of the question involved in this case, for the reason that, in the opinion of this court, the judicial path has been made so clear by numerous decisions, commencing with the decision of that great jurist Chief Justice Marshall in the case of Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cranch, 128, 3 L. Ed. 175. He announces the doctrine in that case that, when the question for consideration before the court was “whether a law be void for its repugnancy to the constitution, it is, at all times, a question of much delicacy, which ought seldom, if ever, to be decided in the affirmative in a doubtful case. * * * The opposition between the constitution and the law should be such that the judge feels a clear and strong conviction of their incompatibility with each other.”

In the case of McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 423, 4 L. Ed. 5, Judge Marshall, in considering the constitutionality of an act of congress, states the law to be:

“Where Lhe law is not prohibited, and is really calculated to effect any of the objects intrusted to the government, to undertake here to inquire into the degree of its necessity would be to pass the line which circumscribes the judicial department, and to tread on legislative ground. This court disclaims all pretensions to such power.”

In the same opinion he says:

“Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are .constitutional.”

It would seem, therefore, that all means which are necessary to be exercised for the legitimate purpose of levying taxes and collecting the same may be employed to that end. In the case of U. S. v. Fisher, 2 Cranch, 396, 2 L. Ed. 317, the learned chief justice announced the doctrine that “any means which are in fact conducive to the exercise of a power granted by the constitution,” or (as he stated in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland) “any means calculated to produce the end that congress had in view, were legitimate and constitutional.” This same doctrine was affirmed in the Legal Tender Cases, 12 Wall. 531, 20 L. Ed. 306, Justice Strong delivering the opinion of the court; and in the case of Bank v. Fenno, 8 Wall. 548, 19 L. Ed. 487, in which [455]*455Chief Justice Chase, who in his day was one of the ablest constitutional lawyers in the country, speaking for the supreme court, announced the doctrine “that rhe judicial cannot prescribe to the legislative department of the government limitations upon the exercise of its acknowledged powers. The ¡lower to tax may be exercised oppressively upon persons, but the responsibility of the legislature is not in the courts, but to the people, by whom its members are elected.” It would seem to be a well-settled principle of constitutional law — in fact, I may say it is now elementary — that, where there is not an express grant in the constituí ion, yet, in the absence of a grant of power applied to a specific case, there is always an implied power, which is incidental and auxiliary to the constitution, to execute and carry out its provisions, as in this case the constitution confers the power upon congress to lay and collect taxes, but leaves it to the wisdom of congress to prescribe the mode, manner, and means of levying and collecting the same. What, then, is the object of the statute under consideration? It is apparent that its only purpose is to protect and secure the government in raising its revenues upon the par* ticular subject of taxation specified in it In the language of Chief Justice Marshall: “Is the end legitimate, and are the means adopted and used adapted to carrying out the purpose and object of congress in passing the hill?” As was well said by the court in the case of Hepburn v. Griswold, 8 Wall. 615, 19 L. Ed. 523:

“It is finally settled, so lar as judicial decisions can settle anything, Iliac tlie words, ‘all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution powers expressly granted or vested,' have in the constitution a sense equivalent to the words, ‘laws not absolutely necessary, indeed, but appropriate — plainly pdairtod. —to constitutional and legitimate ends: laws not prohibited, but consistent with the letter and spirit of the constitution; law's really calculated to effect the objects intrusted to the government.’ ”

If the principle just announced be correct, we are at a loss to see how an act of congress can be held to be unconstitutional which has a legitimate object, and which is plainly appropriate to secure the collection of taxes provided for in the act.

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Related

Fletcher v. Peck
10 U.S. 87 (Supreme Court, 1810)
M'culloch v. State of Maryland
17 U.S. 316 (Supreme Court, 1819)
Ex parte Burr
4 F. Cas. 791 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of District of Columbia, 1823)

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Bluebook (online)
103 F. 453, 1900 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 313, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-288-packages-of-merry-world-tobacco-wvad-1900.