White v. Bracelin

107 N.W. 1055, 144 Mich. 332, 1906 Mich. LEXIS 1054
Michigan Supreme Court·Decided May 24, 1906·No. Calendar No. 21,659·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

Hooker J.

At.its 1905 session the legislature passed a law making it a penal offense for any person to keep a saloon where spirituous or intoxicating liquors are sold within 100 rods of any public school in Berrien county. See Act No. 663, Local Acts 1905.

The respondent/ a magistrate, was asked to issue a warrant against a person charged with violating that law, but refused to do so, whereupon he was proceeded against by [333] mandamus to compel such action. The. circuit court ordered a peremptory writ to issue, and the cause is now before us on certiorari.

The only question in the case is whether the act is constitutional. It is too late to seriously question the power of the legislature to prohibit the manufacture or sale, in this State, of spirituous or intoxicating liquor. Since 1859 an uninterrupted line of cases have so held. We need not consider the arguments, that this legislation infringes the right of “incorporated villages and cities to maintain saloons,” without the wishes of the inhabitants of the locality being considered, or what the effect will be upon owners of orchards and vineyards. The only questionable point is whether this act, being legislation pertaining to a portion of the State, is private legislation of a' class which infringes constitutional rights of persons residing in Berrien county. In discussing the question of ‘ ‘ unequal or partial legislation,” Mr. Justice Cooley has said:

“ Laws public in their objects may, unless express constitutional provision forbids, be either general or local in their application; they may embrace many subjects or one, and they may extend to all citizens, or be confined to particular classes, as minors or married women, bankers or traders, and the like. The authority that legislates for the State at large must determine whether particular rules shall extend to the whole State and all its citizens, or, on the other hand, to a subdivision of the State or a single class of its citizens only. The circumstances of a particular locality, or the prevailing public sentiment in that section of the State, may require or make acceptable different police regulations from those demanded in another, or call for different taxation, and a different application of the public moneys. The legislature may there* fore prescribe or authorize different laws of police, allow the right of eminent domain to be exercised in different cases and through different agencies, and prescribe peculiar restrictions upon taxation in each distinct municipality, provided the State Constitution does not forbid. These discriminations are made constantly; and the fact that the laws are of local or special operation only is not supposed to render them obnoxious in principle. The [334] legislature may also deem it desirable to prescribe peculiar rules for the several occupations, and to establish distinctions in the rights, obligations, duties, and capacities of citizens. The business of common carriers, for instance, or of bankers, may require special statutory regulations for the general benefit, and it may be matter of public policy to give laborers in one business a specific lien for their wages, when it would be impracticable or impolitic to do the same for persons engaged in some other employments.. If the laws be otherwise unobjectionable, all that can be required in these cases is, that they be general in their application to the class or locality to which they apply; and they are then public in character, and of their propriety and policy the legislature must judge.”, Cooley on Constitutional Limitations (6th Ed.), p. 479.

This law is general in the sense that the author indicates. It applies to every one who lives or comes within the State. It is not limited to citizens of Berrien county. It is true that it prohibits saloons only in that county, and it may be that there is not the same necessity for that particular prohibition elsewhere. Innumerable instances of such legislation can be found. All of our local option laws involve this principle, and it is a common thing for the legislature to pass special acts, establishing exceptional municipal bodies, such as cities, villages, and school districts. A recent case-sustained such action in relation to a school district in Hillsdale county. See Attorney General, ex rel. Kies, v. Lowrey, 131 Mich. 639, affirmed 199 U. S. 233.

Again, the legislature has passed many laws regulating or restraining the taking of fish in particular lakes or streams. All of these laws apply to all persons, though they apply to limited territory. It is manifest that the necessity for a law may depend upon local conditions, of which the legislature must judge. Among the cases apropos to the subject are Haskel v. City of Burlington, 30 Iowa, 232, and Iowa Railroad Land Co. v. Soper, 39 Iowa, 115.

In Harrison v. Gordy, 57 Ala. 49, it was held that “the legislature may, by a special or local.act, prohibit [335] -the sale of vinous or spirituous liquor, within a town and territory adjacent thereto.”

In Block v. State, 66 Ala. 493, a law prohibiting the ■sale of liquor within a specified distance from two churches (naming them) situated in different counties was held valid.

In State v. Berlin, 21 S. C. 292, a law which permitted the sale of spirituous liquors in cities and villages, and prohibited it elsewhere in the State, was attacked, both .as violating the State Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment. The court held it valid, saying:

“The practical question, therefore, presented in this case, is whether the legislature can, in the exercise of the police power, prescribe different regulations for the sale of -spirituous liquors in different localities within its borders. It is quite clear that regulations which might prove very effective in one locality, might be found very inefficient in another, and it would seem, therefore, that to render the exercise of this admitted power most effective the regulations should be adapted to the wants and conditions •of the different localities to which they are to be applied.”

Again, in Georgia (Howell v. State, 71 Ga. 224) a law was sustained forbidding such a sale within two miles of two specified academies, in a particular county. Both of these cases refer with approval to the language of Mr. Justice Cooley above quoted. See, also, Marmet v. State, 45 Ohio St. 63; State v. Baltimore County Com'rs, 29 Md. 516; and Unity v. Burrage, 103 U. S. 455.

The claim that such statutes do not violate the Fourteenth Amendment is equally well supported. Thus in Missouri v. Lewis, 101 U. S. 31, the court said:

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White v. Bracelin, 107 N.W. 1055, 144 Mich. 332, 1906 Mich. LEXIS 1054 (Mich. 1906).

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