Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/406/935/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 10:21:05+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 406 › ROACH v. U. S.
The public road travelled by petitioner crosses the Canal Zone and his operations in no way conflict with 'any rights granted to the United States' under the 1903 Treaty.
The Canal Zone authorities decided to give all cross-Canal Zone public transportation to one Delaware corporation. The necessity of the Delaware corporation's meeting minimum wage requirements was said to be the reason. No hearings, however, were held. The petitioner and the other 'indigents' were given no notice and no opportunity to be heard. They were driven out of business by the ipse dixit of the Governor and petitioner stands criminally convicted. Petitioner is no fly-by-night operator. He operated 15 buses and employed 30 people and was in this business for 23 years. His crossing of the Canal Zone is guaranteed by the 1903 Treaty; and though one agrees arguendo that the right may be regulated as to times and circumstances, there is no defensible reason given why a person should be driven out of business with no chance to be heard.
declared to be established as rules of law for the maintenance of individual freedom, at the same time expressing regret that the inhabitants of the islands had not theretofore enjoyed their benefit.
'How can it be successfully maintained that these expressions of fundamental rights, which have been the subject of frequent adjudication in the courts of this country, and the maintenance of which has been ever deemed essential to our Government, could be used by Congress in any other sense than that which has been placed upon them in construing the instrument from which they were taken?' Kepner v. United States, 195 U.S. 100, 124.
Procedural due process, for example, may not be necessary before food unfit for human use is seized. See North American Cold Storage Co. v. Chicago, 211 U.S. 306. But barring the need for quick, expeditious action, the amenities of notice and hearing are required whether discharge from public employment be at issue, Slochower v. Board of Higher Education, 350 U.S. 551; denial of a tax exemption, Speiser v. Randall, 357 U.S. 513; disqualification for unemployment compensation, Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398; or the termination of welfare benefits, Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 263-265.

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