Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1923-01-13

Federal. State or Territorial. to the
contrary. The concurrent power" Sc ,
ton enables Congress and the several
States not to defeat but to enforce pre-
hibitiOn. Concurrent power" dOesn
mean Joint power" or that the APP
prevail OF the several States or any OF
:hem is needed to make prohibition
Legislation by Congress effective. or
that the power OF enforcement "is di
vided between Congress and the States
along the lines which separate or dis.
tinguish foreign and interstate com.
merce from interstate affairs" The
power of Congress under Section =.
though not exclusive, coextends terri.
torially with the prohibition Of Section
l, includes intrastate manufacture
and so on, as well as importation and
expectation and interstate traffic. and
doesn't depend on and isn't affected by
what the States do or fail to do.
Chief Justice Taft says that the 18th
Amendment invalidates every legisla.
tive act. but he is careful not to saw
that the 18th Amendment invalidates
any previous Amendment to the Con
stitution of the United States. But in
lis conclusions. he virtually says this
very thing for he asserts, despite the
iact that while the life or limb of any
citizen cannot be twice placed in jeop-
ardy in this country for the same
offense. he shows how the life or limb
OF a citizen is placed in jeopardy for
the same ofYense and he declares that
although it is a legislative provision,
1. Is lawful.
He overlooks the fact that there can
not be two sovereigns in a Republic
one the equal Of the other as against a
centralized form of government. The
one must necessarily supercede or
override the other. The sovereign pow
ers OF State are coequal, but the
sovereign powers OF the National Gov
eminent and that Of State cannot he
co-equal. When the States ratified the
prohibition or 18th Amendment to the
Constitution it surrendered it's sover-
eighty in this particular case to the
National Government. We are indulg
ing in this comment as a matter of
argument. AS a matter of fact, "tbe
water has already passed under the
bridge and we bow to the decree of
the august tribunal. although we mu Il
admit that it seems 10 us that the
great jurists have yielded to the popu-
lar demand, instead OF following strict
ly the letter of tire law
The Times in its comment says
further:
The State power to prohibit and ell.
force comes not from the Eighteenth
Amendment, but from the Tenth {.
THE powers not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States. are re-
served to the States respectively, or 70
the people" Therefore, two sovereign
ties have the power, derived from diff
ierent sources, of enacting prohibition
laws; are capable Of dealing with the
same subject matter within the
same territory.@ The only limitation
on the power of the State is that II
/ can't make valid acts which thS
Amendment prohibits:
Each Government, i'm determining
what shall be an offense against its
peace and dignity, is exercising its
own sovereignty, not that Of the other
1t follows that an act denounced as 6
| crime by both National and State au
thorities is an offense against the
peace and dignity of both. and may be
| punished by each. The Fifth Amend
ment, like all the other guarantees in
the first eight amendments, applies
only to proceedings by the Federal
Government, and the double jeopardy
| therein forbidden is a second prosecu
tlon under authority of the Federal
Government after a first trial for the
! same offenSe under the same author
ity Here the same act was an offense
against the State of Washington be
cause violation of it's law, and also
an offense against the United States
under the National Prohibition act
The defendants thus committed tive
conviction by the court of Washing
different offenses by the same act, and
ton of the offense against that State
| is not conviction of the different of
Tense against the United States, and
so is not double jeopardy,
| a..........,s-A...s..s---- a-s---.sz:-.---@7
But the States are prohibited from
placing the life or limb of either
twice in jeopardy and inversely, the
United States is prohibited from doina
the same thing. If citizen has al
ready been punished for crime thi!
| logically prohibits him from beiBs
punished again upon the same charge
for the same offense.