Case ID: la-ann_8/html/0087-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Rost, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Board of Selectmen v. Spalding & Rogers.
    The tax Imposed by the town of Baton Rouge upon public exhibitions is a mere police regulation, necessary to the order and the very existence of towns and cities, and not restrained by any provision of the Constitution of the United States.
    APPEAL from the Mayor’s Court, town of Baton Rouge, J. B. Bufrocg, Mayor.
    Defendants were proprietors of a steamboat on which they had Circus exhibitions. They claimed the right to give these exhibitions without the usual town license, on the ground that they had taken out a coasting license, under the act of Congress.
    Seymour, for plaintiffs.
    Brunot, for defendants and appellants.
   Rost, J.

We shall not attempt to decide whether Circus exhibitions are such a coasting trade as the license of the custom house could authorize the 'defendants to carry on, on board of the Floating Palace; for admitting that it can, and that the license is in proper form, the tax imposed by the town of Baton Rouge upon public exhibitions, is a mere police regulation, necessary to the order and the very existence of cities and towns, and neither surrendered nor restrained by any provision in the Constitution of the United States. The authority of the State, in such cases, is complete, and, as it has, in this instance, been delegated to the plaintiffs, they are entitled to recover.

Judgment affirmed, with costs.