Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/236/216/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 16:41:45+00:00

Document:
In a case from the district court, if the power to review attaches because of a constitutional question, that authority gives rise to the duty of determining all the questions involved, including those that otherwise are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the district court, but if the constitutional question asserted as the basis for jurisdiction of this Court is frivolous, this Court has no power to review it or any of the other questions involved. The writ of error must be dismissed.
The absolute power expressly conferred upon Congress to regulate foreign commerce involves the existence of power to prohibit importations and to punish the act of knowingly concealing or moving merchandise which has been imported in successful violation of such prohibition. Keller v. United States, 213 U. S. 138, distinguished.
The contention in this case that § 2 of the Act of February 9, 1909, c. 100, 35 Stat. 614, regulating the importation of opium is unconstitutional as beyond the power of Congress has been so foreclosed by prior decisions of this Court that it is frivolous, and affords no basis for jurisdiction of this Court under § 238, Judicial Code.
The facts, which involve the jurisdiction of this Court under § 238, Judicial Code, are stated in the opinion.
The indictment against the plaintiffs in error contained two counts: The first charged a conspiracy to wrongfully import opium into the United States in violation of the first portion of § 2 of the Act of February 9, 1909, c. 100, 35 Stat. 614. The second charged a conspiracy to unlawfully receive, conceal, and facilitate the transportation of opium which had been wrongfully imported into the United States with knowledge of such previous illegal importation, in violation of the latter part of the section referred to. The first count was quashed on the ground that the overt acts alleged occurred after the illegal importation or smuggling which was counted on. On the second count, there was a conviction and sentence, and this direct writ of error to the trial court is prosecuted to reverse the same. The right to a reversal rests upon two propositions: the one, that the clause of the section upon which the second count was based is repugnant to the Constitution of the United States because beyond the legislative power of Congress to enact, and because, moreover, its provisions intrinsically constitute a usurpation of the powers reserved to the states by the Constitution, and the other, the insistence that various material errors were committed by the trial court during the progress of the case aside from the constitutionality of the statute.
duty to determine all the questions involved. Burton v. United States, 196 U. S. 283; Williamson v. United States, 207 U. S. 425, 207 U. S. 432; Billings v. United States, 232 U. S. 261, 232 U. S. 276. Under these circumstances, to prevent a disregard of the distribution of appellate power made by the Judicial Code, and to see to it that there is something on which our jurisdiction to review can rest, it behooves us in this, as in all other cases, to see whether the question upon which our power depends is really presented, and if not, because, although in form arising, it is in substance so wholly wanting in merit as to be frivolous, to decline the exercise of jurisdiction. Farrell v. O'Brien, 199 U. S. 89, 199 U. S. 100; Goodrich v. Ferris, 214 U. S. 71, 214 U. S. 79; Hendricks v. United States, 223 U. S. 178.
but indirectly as a necessary result of provisions contained in tariff legislation. It has also, in other than tariff legislation, exerted a police power over foreign commerce by provisions which in and of themselves amounted to the assertion of the right to exclude merchandise at discretion. This is illustrated by statutory provisions which have been in force for more than fifty years regulating the degree of strength of drugs, medicines, and chemicals entitled to admission into the United States and excluding such as did not equal the standards adopted. 9 Stat. 237, c. 70, Rev.Stat. § 2933."
And see Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. v. Stranahan, 214 U. S. 320, 214 U. S. 334-335; The Abby Dodge, 223 U. S. 166, 223 U. S. 176.
to the control of those things which are essential to make the power existing and operative -- a conclusion the truth of which cannot be escaped in the light of the doctrine on that subject so luminously stated in Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, and which has been the guide by which the Constitution has been successfully interpreted and applied from that day to this.
fifteen years, of the constant exertion of administrative authority under such legislation, and of the assumption that such power undoubtedly obtained, manifested by a multitude of judicial decisions too numerous to refer to, although many of them are cited in the argument of the government, we can discover no possible ground upon which the contention to the contrary here relied upon can rest, and therefore the conclusion that it is wholly unsubstantial and frivolous cannot possibly be escaped.
was so manifest that Congress amended the act by making the penal clause which was held unconstitutional applicable only to those immoral aliens who had come into the United States in violation of the prohibitions of the act (March 26, 1910, § 2, c. 128, 36 Stat. 264). In the argument, reference is made to decisions of this Court dealing with the subject of the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce, but the very postulate upon which the authority of Congress to absolutely prohibit foreign importations as expounded by the decisions of this Court rests in the broad distinction which exists between the two powers, and therefore the cases cited and many more which might be cited, announcing the principles which they uphold, have obviously no relation to the question in hand. In fact, it is true to say of the citation of these cases as well as of the reference to the Keller case that a proposition which is so wholly devoid of merit as to be frivolous is not given a substantial character by an attempt to support it by contentions which are themselves wholly devoid of all merit and frivolous.
There being no possible ground upon which to attribute even semblance of foundation for the constitutional question relied upon, it follows that it affords no basis for our jurisdiction to directly review, and the writ of error is dismissed for want of jurisdiction.

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