United States v. Sutton

165 F. 253, 1908 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 159
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Washington
DecidedOctober 23, 1908
DocketNo. 693
StatusPublished

This text of 165 F. 253 (United States v. Sutton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Sutton, 165 F. 253, 1908 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 159 (E.D. Wash. 1908).

Opinion

WHITSON, District Judge.

The defendants stand indicted under section 2139 Rev. St. as amended by the act of January 30, 1897, c. 109, 29 Stat. 506, for having introduced ardent spirits and intoxicating liquor upon a certain Indian allotment made under the act of February 8, 1887, c. 119, 24. Stat. 388, and within the boundaries of the Yakima Indian Reservation. A demurrer raises the question whether the acts charged constitute a crime. While it does not appear from the indictment, upon argument it was conceded that the allotment referred to was made prior to the amendatory act of May 8, 1906, c. 2348, 34 Stat. 182, which in terms retains jurisdiction over allottees until the expiration of the trust period and issuance of the final patent.

The decision in the Matter of Heff, 197 U. S. 488, 25 Sup. Ct. 506, 49 L. Ed. 848, settled several questions which had theretofore been ob- • scure: First. Under the act of 1887, the completion of the allotment and the issuance of the preliminary patent conferred citizenship upon the allottee. Second. Allottees, being citizens of the United States, are also citizens of the state in which they reside, and since the act provides that they shall be subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of that state, the act of January 30, 1897, can no longer be enforced as against the sale of intoxicants to such allottees. Third. The status of . citizenship once conferred upon the Indians it is beyond the power of Congress to resume its control and guardianship without the consent of the individual Indian and the state. Fourth. The sale of intoxicating liquors is a police regulation which may no longer be enforced as to those who have become citizens by virtue of having received allotments, for by the same act which conferred citizenship Congress parted with its control of those matters which fall within the police power. Fifth. The general police power is reserved to the states, subject to the limitation that they may not trespass on the rights and powers vested in the national government.

Counsel, while conceding these propositions, would sustain the indictment upon grounds claimed to be in harmony with them. The position of the prosecution, as I understand it, is concisely and ably stated in a brief of the Solicitor General (filed in another case), which the District Attorney has adopted as a part of his argument. Briefly, it is this: The title to allotted lands during the period for which they are held in trust being in the United States, it may control those lands even to the extent of establishing police regulations over them.

Reliance is had upon United States v. Rickert, 188 U. S. 432, 23 Sup. Ct. 478, 47 L. Ed. 532, and Rainbow et al. v. Young, Sheriff (C. C. A.) 161 Fed. 835, and particularly upon the case first mentioned; and the contention is based generally upon those decisions of the Supreme Court which uphold the power of Congress to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the public domain, such as Gibson v. Chouteau, 13 Wall. 92, 20 L. Ed. 534, Jourdan v. Barrett, 4 How. 168, 11 L. Ed. 924, and Camfield v. United States, [255]*255167 U. S. 518, 17 Sup. Ct. 864, 42 L. Ed. 260, and upon the powers vested in the federal government for the enforcement and execution of the laws as declared in Ex parte Siebold, 109 U. S. 371, 25 L. Ed. 717, In re Neagle, 135 U. S. 1, 10 Sup. Ct. 658, 34 L. Ed. 55, In re Debs, 168 U. 3. 564, 15 Sup. Ct. 900, 39 L. Ed. 1092, and Ohio v. Thomas, 173 U. S. 276, 19 Sup. Ct. 453, 43 L. Ed. 699. Butnone of those cases go to the extent of holding that the police power is not wholly within state authority except where it is incidental to and necessary for enforcing the laws of the United States or the protection of property over which it has exclusive control.

United States v. Rickert, supra, cannot he construed as announcing anything beyond the power to interfere for the exemption of allotted lands from local or state taxation. Clearly this is the principle upon which the decision rests, for “no authority exists for the state to tax lands which are held in trust by the United States for the purpose of carrying out its policy in reference to these Indians” is the language of the Supreme Court. And in the discussion of that case in the Matter of Heff, supra, it was said:

“But the faet that properly is held subject to a condition against alienation does not affect the civil or political status of the holder of the title.”

We have seen that the Supreme Court has designated the statute under which the defendants arc indicted as a police regulation, hut it was dealing with the sale of liquor to an allotted Indian, and not with the prohibition against the introduction of intoxicating liquors into the Indian country. If that phase of the statute also may properly be so construed, there would seem to be no ground upon which the indictment can be sustained, unless it he in the enforcement of such police regulations as the United States is entitled to invoke for the protection of its own property.

In the License Cases, 5 How. 504, 12 L. Ed. 256, speaking of the police power, it was said:

“Without attempting to define wliat are the peculiar subjects or limits of tilia power, it may safely be affirmed that every law for the restraint ard punishment of crime, for the preservation of public peace, health, and. morals, must, come within this category.”

So in the Slaughterhouse Cases, 16 Wall. 36, 21 L. Ed. 394, if was thus referred to:

“This power is, and must be from its very nature, incapable of any very exact definition or limitation. Upon it: depends the security of social order, the life and health of the citizen, the comfort of an existence in a thickly populated community, the enjoyment of private and social life, and the beneficial use of property.”

We are not left, however, to the necessity of deduction from abstract principles, but have the aid of their specific application to the very matter here in issue.

Ex parte Dick, 141 Fed. 5, 72 C. C. A. 667, arose out of an indictment for introducing liquor into the Indian country. The Circuit Court of Appeals (Ninth Circuit), in discussing the jurisdiction, said:

“We do not think that Congress can reserve or exercise such police power within the territorial limits of a state. The iioliee power of the United States [256]*256can only be exercised where the legislative authority of Congress excludes territorially all state legislation. United States v. De Witt, 9 Wall. 41, 45, 19 L. Ed. 593; Slaughterhouse Cases, 16 Wall. 36, 64, 21 L. Ed. 394.”

And so the statute was construed in United States v. Boss (D. C.) 160 Fed. 132, and perhaps counsel do not seriously contend to the contrary.

This extended reference has been made for the purpose of emphasizing the only possible ground upon which the offense charged may be punished under existing laws. It is true that the Supreme Court in Dick v. United States, 208 U. S. 340, 28 Sup. Ct. 399, 52 L. Ed.

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Related

Jourdan v. Barrett
45 U.S. 169 (Supreme Court, 1846)
Thurlow v. Massachusetts
46 U.S. 504 (Supreme Court, 1847)
United States v. Dewitt
76 U.S. 41 (Supreme Court, 1870)
Gibson v. Chouteau
80 U.S. 92 (Supreme Court, 1872)
Bates v. Clark
95 U.S. 204 (Supreme Court, 1877)
Ex Parte Siebold
100 U.S. 371 (Supreme Court, 1880)
Flash v. Conn
109 U.S. 371 (Supreme Court, 1883)
Ex Parte Crow Dog
109 U.S. 556 (Supreme Court, 1883)
In Re Neagle
135 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1890)
In Re Debs
158 U.S. 564 (Supreme Court, 1895)
Camfield v. United States
167 U.S. 518 (Supreme Court, 1897)
Ohio v. Thomas
173 U.S. 276 (Supreme Court, 1899)
United States v. Rickert
188 U.S. 432 (Supreme Court, 1903)
Matter of Heff
197 U.S. 488 (Supreme Court, 1905)
Dick v. United States
208 U.S. 340 (Supreme Court, 1908)
Palcher v. United States
11 F. 47 (D. Minnesota, 1882)
United States v. Martin
14 F. 817 (D. Oregon, 1883)
Ex parte Dick
141 F. 5 (Ninth Circuit, 1905)
United States v. Boss
160 F. 132 (D. Utah, 1906)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
165 F. 253, 1908 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-sutton-waed-1908.