New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-06-08
Supreme Court
Upholds Dry
Amendment

ceedings instituted by Hiram A. Saw
yer in Milwaukee. Lower courts were
sustained in cases involving George G.
Dempsey, of Massachusetts,, the Ken
lucky Distilleries and Warehouse Com
pany, Christian Feigenspan, of New
Jersey, and the st. Louis Brewing Com
pany.
After it had concluded reading its
opinion, the court granted sixty, days
for the attorneys representing the wet
interests to file petitions for new
hearings.
Text of Courts Decision
The courts decision follows:
u. The adoption by both houses of
Congress, each by two-thirds vote, of
Joint resolution proposing An amend
mont to the Constitution sufficiently
shows that the proposal was deemed
necessary by all who voted for it, An
express declaration that they regarded
1t as necessary is not essential. None
OF the resolutions whereby prior
amendments we're proposed contained
such q declaration.
"2. The, two-thirds vote in each house
which is required in proposing an
the members notwithstanding the
presence Of = quorum-and not a vote
Of two-thirds of the entire member
ship present and absent. Missouri Pa
c!fc Railway Company VS.. Kansas. %
U. s., 276. 80 .
so. The referendum provision Of
state constitutions and statutes cannot
be applied, consistently, with the Con-
stitution Of the United States in the
ratification or rejection of amendments
to it. Hawke VS.. Smith, U. S., decided
June /, 1920. IT,
Granted by Article v
"a. The prohibition of the manufac-
ture. sale, transportation, importation
and expectation Of intoxicating liquors
Tor beverage purposes, as embodied in
the Eighteenth Amendment, is within
the power to amend reserved by Article
" Of the Constitution.
70. That amendment by lawful pro-
posal and ratification has become a
part of the Constitution and must be
respected and given effect the same as
other provisions of that instrument
ment-the one embodying the prohibi-
tion-is operative throughout the EN-
tire territorial limits Of the United
States, binds all legislative bodies,
courts, public officers and individuals
within those limits, and Of its own
force invalidates any legislative act,
whether by Congress, by State Legis-
lature, or by a Territorial Assembly,
which authorizes or sanctions what
the section prohibits.
Concurrent Power Defined
~. The second section of the amend
ment, the one declaring the Congress
and the several states shall have con-
current power to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation,' does not
enable Congress or the several states
to defeat or thwart the prohibition, but
only to enforce it by appropriate
means.
IS. The words concurrent power in
that section do not mean joint power,
or require that legislation hereunder
BY Congress to be effective shall be
approved or sanctioned by the several
states or any of them; nor do they
mean that the power to enforce is
divided between Congress and the sew
eral states along the lines which sepa-
rate or distinguish foreign and inter-
state commerce from intrastate affairs.
70. The power confided to Congress
by that section. while not exclusive, is
territorially coextensiye with the pro-
hibition Of the first section, embraces
manufacture and other intrastate
transactions as we'll as importation, ex-
portation and interstate traffic, and is