New-York tribune., 1919-12-18
Rhode Island
Attacks Dry
Amendment
Attorney General of State
iii Bill Filed in U. S. SUI
preme Court Asks for
Leave to Test Validity
New Yorh 1r15u,ss
Washington Bureau


WASHINGTON, Dec. ia new at
tack upon the prohibition constitu-
tional amendment and the volstead
prohibition enforcement act was
launched In the Supreme Court to day
by the State OF Rhode Island Herbert
A. Rice, Attorney General of Rhode
Island, filed q motion with the court
asking leave to begin proceedings
against A Mitchell Palmer. Attorney
General Of the United States, and
Daniel C. Roper Commissioner of In
ternal Revenue, to enjoin the enforce
ment Of the Volstead act against citi-
zens Of Rhode Island.
In the bill left with the court to sup.
port the motion the Rhode Island At
torney General declares the Eighteenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States is void and usupatory,
that Congress had no power under the
Constitution to propose 1t to the states,
and that it is an invasion Of the police
powers Of Rhode Island, which cannot
be reconciled with the theory under
which that state subscribed to the Con-
stitution.
The amendment Is declared to be q
revolutionary proposal" to the legis-
latures "of revision and addition to
the Constitution Of the United State
that is destructive of the fundamental
principle" of that instrument
Delay Of Sixty Days Forecast
Rhode Island was one of the states
which failed to ratify the Eighteenth
Amendment, and its General Assembly
adopted q resolution directing the At
torney General to institute proceedings
to test the validity Of that amen dment.
Officers of the court said day that
even II the court grants the request in
the ordinary processes of procedure it
may take at least sixty days before
Attorney General Palmer and Com
missioner Roper are required to an
swer. Before that time the Eighteenth
Amendment will have gone into effect,
but an adverse decision would remove
it from the Constitution.
So far as officials could recall there
has been no similar suit by state in
recent years which "Questioned the va
lidity of an amendment to the Consti-
tuition The same question. broadly
speaking, was presented to the court
yesterday, however, by the New Jersey
Retail Liquor Dealers Association.
II the court grants the plea of
Rhode Island there will be five mpor-
tant prohibition cases before it. The
court now has on it's docket and has
heard arguments in three.
Powers of State Recited
One is that Of Jacob Rupert
New York brewer, against the United
States, which involves the constitution
atty Of the wartime prohibition law
particularly as to Pas per cent beer
which Rupert contends is non intoxi-
eating. The government argued that
any beverage containing more than
one-half Of | per cent alcohol is intoxi-
eating.
Two other cases are those of the
United States against the Standard
Brewing Company, of Baltimore, and
the United States against the American
Brewing Company, of New Orleans
which are similar in substance to the
Rupert case.
The bill in equity filed with the
court to-day goes back into the history
of Rhode Island from its settlement
in 1886 to the ratification by it of the
United States Constitution in 1890
This ratification, the bill says, was
in good faith and with full assurance
that said state and the people thereof
relinquished only such portion OF
sovereign power as was necessary anc
essential for the creation and estab-
ishment of limited national govern
ment for the purpose and with the
powers enumerated IN the severa
articles of said constitution, and that
all other powers not delegated nor pro
hibited to the state of Rhode Island
were reserved to the State OF Rhode
Island or to the sovereign people
( thereof"
Constitution Alleged Violated
After further recital of the histor,
of the state showing how it ordained
new constitution in l843 the bill says
The people OF said state, both undel
the charter of 1863 and under tn,
constitution of ls43, have ever posses
sed, exercised and enjoyed. as Of right
Continual on rnne three