Source: https://conlawincontext.com/weaver-v-palmer-brothers-co-1926/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 10:04:01+00:00

Document:
JUSTICE BUTLER delivered the opinion of the Court.
“Pillow,” “bolster,” or “feather bed” means “any bag, case, or covering made of cotton or other textile material, and stuffed or filled with” any filler mentioned in the definition of “mattress,” or with feathers or feather down.
“Cushion’ means ‘any bag or case made of leather, cotton, or other textile material, and stuffed or filled with any filler, except jute and straw, mentioned in the definition of ‘pillow,’ or with tow.
The word ‘new,’ as used in the Act, means ‘any material or article which has not been previously manufactured or used for any purpose.
The Act took effect January 1, 1924. Appellant is charged with its enforcement, and threatened to proceed against the appellee and its customers. January 29, 1924, appellee brought this suit to enjoin the enforcement of the Act on the grounds, among others, that, as applied to the business of appellee, it is repugnant to the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. An application under § 266 of the Judicial Code for a temporary injunction was denied. The decree was affirmed by this Court. 266 U.S. 588. Later, defendant answered and there was a trial at which much evidence was introduced. The district court found that the statute infringes appellee’s constitutional rights insofar as it absolutely prohibits the use of shoddy in the manufacture of comfortables, and, to that extent, the decree restrains its enforcement. This appeal is under § 238 of the Judicial Code.
The question for decision is whether the provision purporting absolutely to forbid the use of shoddy in comfortables violates the due process clause or the equal protection clause. The answer depends on the facts of the case. Legislative determinations express or implied are entitled to great weight, but it is always open to interested parties to show that the legislature has transgressed the limits of its power. Penna. Coal Co. v. Mahon,260 U. S. 393, 260 U. S. 413. Invalidity may be shown by things which will be judicially noticed (Quong Wing v. Kirkendall, 223 U. S. 59, 223 U. S. 64) or by facts established by evidence. The burden is on the attacking party to establish the invalidating facts. See Minnesota Rate Cases, 230 U. S. 352, 230 U. S. 452.
For many years prior to the passage of the Act, comfortables made in appellee’s factories had been sold in Pennsylvania. In 1923, its business in that state exceeded $558,000, of which more than $188,000 was for comfortables filled with shoddy. About 5,000 dozens of these were filled with shoddy made of new materials, and about 3,000 dozens with second-hand shoddy. Appellee makes approximately 3,000,000 comfortables annually, and about 750,000 of these are filled with materials defined by the Act as shoddy. New material from which appellee makes shoddy consists of clippings and pieces of new cloth obtained from cutting tables in garment factories; second-hand shoddy is made of second-hand garments, rags, and the like. The record shows that annually many million pounds of fabric, new and second-hand, are made into shoddy. It is used for many purposes. It is rewoven into fabric, made into pads to be used as filling material for bedding, and is used in the manufacture of blankets, clothing, underwear, hosiery, gloves, sweaters and other garments. The evidence is to the effect that practically all the woolen cloth woven in this country contains some shoddy. That used to make comfortables is a different grade from that used in the textile industry. Some used by appellee for that purpose is made of clippings from new woolen underwear and other high grade and expensive materials. Comfortables made of second-hand shoddy sell at lower prices than those filled with other materials.
Appellant claims that, in order properly to protect health, bedding material should be sterilized. The record shows that, for the sterilization of second-hand materials from which it makes shoddy, appellee uses effective steam sterilizers. There is no controversy between the parties as to whether shoddy may be rendered harmless by disinfection or sterilization. While it is sometimes made from filthy rags, and from other materials that have been exposed to infection, it stands undisputed that all dangers to health may be eliminated by appropriate treatment at low cost. In the course of its decision, the district court said: “It is conceded by all parties that shoddy may be rendered perfectly harmless by sterilization.” The Act itself impliedly determines that proper sterilization is practicable and effective. It permits the use of second-hand materials and new and second-hand feathers when sterilized, and it regulates processes for such sterilization.
The state has wide discretion in selecting things for regulation. We need not consider whether the mere failure to forbid the use of other filling materials that are mentioned in the Act is sufficient, in itself, to invalidate the provision prohibiting the use of shoddy as a violation of the equal protection clause. But the number and character of the things permitted to be used in such manufacture properly may be taken into account in deciding whether the prohibition of shoddy is a reasonable and valid regulation or is arbitrary and violative of the due process clause. Shoddy-filled comfortables made by appellee are useful articles for which there is much demand, and it is a matter of public concern that the production and sale of things necessary or convenient for use should not be forbidden. They are to be distinguished from things that the state is deemed to have power to suppress as inherently dangerous.
“Laws frequently are enforced which the court recognizes as possibly or probably invalid if attacked by a different interest or in a different way.” Quong Wing v. Kirkendall, supra, 223 U. S. 64. This is well illustrated by the Powell case, compared with Schollenberger v. Pennsylvania, 171 U. S. 1. Every opinion is to be read having regard to the facts of the case and the question actually decided. Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 19 U. S. 399. The facts clearly distinguish this case from the Powell case. There it was assumed that most kinds of oleomargarine in the market were or might become injurious to health. Here it is established that sterilization eliminates the dangers, if any, from the use of shoddy. As against that fact, the provision in question cannot be sustained as a measure to protect health, and the fact that the Act permits the use of numerous materials, prescribing sterilization if they are second-hand, also serves to show that the prohibition of the use of shoddy, new or old, even when sterilized, is unreasonable and arbitrary.
Nor can such prohibition be sustained as a measure to prevent deception. In order to ascertain whether the materials used and the finished articles conform to its requirements, the Act expressly provides for inspection of the places where such articles are made, sold or kept for sale. Every article of bedding is required to bear a tag showing the materials used for filling and giving the names and addresses of makers and vendors, and bearing the word “second-hand” where there has been prior use, and giving the number of the permit for sterilizing and disinfecting where second-hand materials or feathers are used for filling. Obviously, these regulations or others that are adequate may be effectively applied to shoddy-filled articles.
The constitutional guaranties may not be made to yield to mere convenience. Schlesinger v. Wisconsin, ante, p.270 U. S. 230. The business here involved is legitimate and useful, and, while it is subject to all reasonable regulation, the absolute prohibition of the use of shoddy in the manufacture of comfortables is purely arbitrary, and violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Adams v. Tanner, 244 U. S. 590, 244 U. S. 596; Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U. S. 390; Burns Baking Co. v. Bryan, 264 U. S. 504.
It is said that there was unjustifiable discrimination. A classification is not to be pronounced arbitrary because it goes on practical grounds and attacks only those objects that exhibit or foster an evil on a large scale. It is not required to be mathematically precise and to embrace every case that theoretically is capable of doing the same harm. “If the law presumably hits the evil where it is most felt, it is not to be overthrown because there are other instances to which it might have been applied.” Miller v. Wilson, 236 U. S. 373, 236 U. S. 384. In this case, as in Schlesinger v. Wisconsin, I think that we are pressing the Fourteenth Amendment too far.

References: § 266
 § 238
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