Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/163/299.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 01:33:44+00:00

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HENNINGTON v. STATE OF GA.
J. M. Terrell, for defendant in error.
The plaintiff in error, Hennington, superintendent of transportation and having charge of the freight business of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company, was indicted, in the superior court of Dade county, Ga., for the offense of having, on the 15th day of March, 1891,-that being the Sabbath day,-unlawfully run a freight train on the Alabama Great Southern Railroad in that county.
'Accessories after the fact, except where it is otherwise ordered in this Code, shall be punished by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars, imprisonment not to exceed six months, to work in the chain-gang on the public works, or on such other works as the county authorities may employ the chain-gang, not to exceed twelve months, and any one or more of these punishments may be ordered in the discretion of the judge: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall authorize the giving the control of convicts to private persons, or their employment by the county authorities in such mechanical pursuits as will bring the products of their labor into competition with the products of free labor.' Code Ga. 1882.
The defendant pleaded not guilty. He also pleaded specially certain facts which, he averred, showed that the statute of Georgia, as applied to this case, was in conflict with the provision of the constitution of the United States giving congress power to regulate commerce among the states.
At the trial the defendant admitted that he was superintendent of transportation of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad, the property of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company, a corporation of Alabama; that the line of that railroad began at the city of Chattanooga, Tenn., extended 9 miles through that state, when it entered the county of Dade, Ga., and ran through that county and over the line of road constructed and operated originally by the Wills Valley Railroad Company, into Alabama; thence through Alabama 245 miles, and into Mississippi, to the city of Meridian, where it connected with other roads; that said company was acting as a common carrier of passengers and freight along its line, using engines and cars propelled by steam; that, on the day mentioned in the in- [163 U.S. 299, 302] dictment, the company, by its superintendent of transportation, the defendant, ran over its line of road from Chattanooga, Tenn., through Georgia and Alabama to Meridian, Miss., a train of cars laden with freight for points beyond the limits of Georgia, the train having been loaded in Tennessee with freight destined for points outside and beyond the limits of Georgia.
The defendant contended that the statute, if applied to these facts, was repugnant to the constitution of the United States. This contention was overruled, and the jury were instructed that, under the facts admitted, the defendant was guilty. The jury accordingly found him guilty as charged in the indictment.
The case was taken to the supreme court of Georgia, and it was assigned for error that the trial court refused to adjudge section 4578 of the Code of Georgia, when applied to the admitted facts, to be repugnant to the commerce clause of the constitution.
The supreme court of Georgia held the statute under which the prosecution was instituted to be a regulation of internal p lice, and not a regulation of commerce; that it was not in conflict with the constitution of the United States, even as to freight trains passing through the state from and to adjacent states, and laden exclusively with freight received on board before the trains entered Georgia and consigned to points beyond its limits.
As the judgment of the supreme court of Georgia denied to the defendant a right of immunity specially set up and claimed by him under the constitution of the United States, no question is or can be made as to the jurisdiction of this court to review that judgment.
If the statute in question, forbidding the running in Georgia of railroad freight trains on the Sabbath day, had been expressly limited to trains laden with domestic freight, it could not be regarded otherwise than as an ordinary police regulation, established by the state under its general power to protect the health and morals, and to promote the welfare, of its people. [163 U.S. 299, 303] From the earliest period in the history of Georgia it has been the policy of that state, as it was the policy of many of the original states, to prohibit all persons, under penalties, from using the Sabbath as a day for labor and for pursuing their ordinary callings. By an act of the colonial legislature of Georgia, approved March 4, 1762, it was provided: 'No tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer or other person whatsoever shall do or exercise any worldly labor, business or work of their ordinary callings, upon the Lord's day, or any part thereof (works of necessity or charity only excepted), and that every person being of the age of fifteen years or upwards, offending in the premises, shall, for every such offense, forfeit the sum of ten shillings. And that no person or persons whatsoever shall publicly cry, show forth, or expose to sale, any wares, merchandise, fruit, herbs, goods, or chattels whatsoever upon the Lord's day, or any part thereof, upon pain that every person so offending shall forfeit the same goods so cried or showed forth, or exposed to sale, or pay ten shillings.' 2 Cobb's Dig. Laws Ga. (New) p. 853. This act is substantially preserved in section 4579 of the Code of Georgia. And by an act approved February 11, 1850, it was provided 'that from and after the 1st day of March next it shall not be lawful for any company or individual to run any freight train or any car carrying freight upon any railroad now existing, or that may hereafter be made, in this state, on the Sabbath day; and any conductor or other person so running or assisting in running any train or car carrying freight on the Sabbath day shall each be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars.' 1 Cobb's Dig. Laws Ga. (New) p. 399. This act was amended by substituting 'superintendent of transportation' for 'conductor,' and in other particulars, not important to be mentioned, and as amended it constitutes section 4578 of the Criminal Code, under the heading of 'Offenses against Public Morality, Health, Police,' etc. Code Ga. 1882.
In what light is the statute of Georgia to be regarded? The well- settled rule is that, if a statute purporting to have [163 U.S. 299, 304] been enacted to protect the public health, the public morals, or the public safety has no real or substantial relation to those objects, or is a palpable invasion of rights secured by the fundamental law, it is the duty of the courts to so adjudge, and thereby give effect to the constitution. Mugler v. State of Kansas, 123 U.S. 623, 661 , 8 S. Sup. Ct. 273; Minnesota v. Barber, 136 U.S. 313, 320 , 10 S. Sup. Ct. 862.
To the same general effect are many cases: Specht v. Com., 8 Pa. St. 312, 322; Com. v. Has, 122 Mass. 40, 42; Frolickstein v. Mobile, 40 Ala. 725; Ex parte Andrews, 18 Cal. 678, in which the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Field in Ex parte Newman, 9 Cal. 502, was approved; State v. Railroad, 24 W. Va. 783; Scales v. State, 47 Ark. 476, 482, 1 S. W. 769; State v. Ambs, 20 Mo. 214; Mayor, etc., v. Linck, 12 Lea, 499, 515.
That court further said: 'With respect to the selection of the particular day in each week which has been set apart by our statute as the rest day of the people, religious views and feelings may have had a controlling influence. We doubt not that they did have; and it is probable that the same views and feelings had a very powerful influence in dictating the policy of setting apart any day whatever as a day of enforced rest. But neither of these considerations is destructive of the police nature and character of the statute. If good and sufficient police reasons underlie it, and substantial police purposes are involved in its provisions, these reasons and purposes constitute its civil and legal justification, whether they were or not the direct and immediate motires which induced its passage, and have for so long a [163 U.S. 299, 307] time kept it in force. Courts are not concerned with the mere beliefs and sentiments of legislators, or with the motives which influence them in enacting laws which are within legislative competency. That which is properly made a civil duty by statute is none the less so because it is also a real or supposed religious obligation; nor is the statute vitiated, or in anywise weakened, by the chance, or even the certainty, that, in passing it, the legislative mind was swayed by the religious, rather than by the civil, aspect of the measure. Doubtless it is a religious duty to pay debts, but no one supposes that this is any obstacle to its being exacted as a civil duty. With few exceptions, the same may be said of the whole catalogue of duties specified in the Ten Commandments. Those of them which are purely and exclusively religious in their nature cannot be made civil duties, but all the rest of them may be, in so far as they involve conduct, as distinguished from mere operations of mind or states of the affections. Opinions may differ, and they really do differ, as to whether abstaining from labor on Sunday is a religious duty; but whether it is or is not, it is certain that the legislature of Georgia has prescribed it as a civil duty. The statute can fairly and rationally be treated as a legitimate police regulation, and, thus treated, it is a valid law. There is a wide difference between keeping a day holy as a religious observance, and merely forbearing to labor on that day in one's ordinary vocation or business pursuit.' Hennington v. State, 90 Ga. 396-399, 17 S. E. 1009.
Assuming, then, that, both upon principle and authority, the statute of Georgia is, in every substantial sense, a police regulation, established under the general authority possessed by the legislature to provide, by laws, for the well-being of the people, we proceed to consider whether it is in conflict with the constitution of the United States.
The defendant contends that the running on the Sabbath day of railroad cars, laden with interstate freight, is committed exclusively to the control and supervision of the national governm nt; and that, although congress has not taken any affirmative action upon the subject, state legislation interrup- [163 U.S. 299, 308] ing, even for a limited time only, interstate commerce, whatever may be its object, and however essential such legislation may be for the comfort, peace, and safety of the people of the state, is a regulation of interstate commerce forbidden by the constitution of the United States. Is this view of the constitution and of the relations between the states and the general government sustained by the former decisions of this court? Is the admitted general power of a state to provide by legislation for the health, the morals, and the general welfare of its people so fettered that it may not enact any law whatever that relates to or affects in any degree the conduct of commerce among the states? If the people of a state deem it necessary to their peace, comfort, and happiness, to say nothing of the public health and the public morals, that one day in each week be set apart by law as a day when business of all kinds carried on within the limits of that state shall cease, whereby all persons of every race and condition in life may have an opportunity to enjoy absolute rest and quiet, is that result, so far as interstate freight traffic is concerned, attainable only through an affirmative act of congress giving its assent to such legislation?
The argument in behalf of the defendants rests upon the erroneous assumption that the statute of Georgia is such a regulation of interstate commerce as is forbidden by the constitution, without reference to affirmative action by congress, and not merely a statute enacted by the state under its police power, and which, although in some degree affecting interstate commerce, does not go beyond the necessities of the case, and therefore is valid, at least until congress interferes.
The distinction here suggested is not new in our jurisprudence. It has been often recognized and enforced by this court. In Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 203, 210, this court recognized the possession by each state of a general power of legislation, that 'embraces everything within the territory of a state, not surrendered to the general government; all which can be most advantageously exercised by the states themselves.' Inspection laws, although having, as the court said in that case, 'a remote and considerable influence on [163 U.S. 299, 309] commerce,' are yet within the authority of the states to enact, because no direct, general power over the objects of such laws was granted to congress. So, also, quarantine laws of every description, if they have real relation to the objects named in them, are to be referred to the power which the states have to make provision for the health and safety of their people. But neither inspection, quarantine, nor health laws enacted by a state have been adjudged void, by force alone of the constitution; and, in the absence of congressional legislation, simply because they remotely, or even directly, affected or temporarily suspended commerce among the states and with foreign nations. Of course, if the inspection, quarantine, or health laws of a state, passed under its reserved power to provide for the health, comfort, and safety of its people, comes into conflict with an act of congress, passed under its power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce, such local regulations, to the extent of the conflict, must give way, in order that the supreme law of the land-an act of congress passed in pursuance of the constitution-may have unobstructed operation. The possibility of conflict between state and national enactments, each to be referred to the undoubted powers of the state and the nation, respectively, was not overlooked in Gibbons v. Ogden, and Chief Justice Marshall said: 'The framers of our constitution foresaw this state of things, and provided for it, by declaring the supremacy not only of itself, but of the laws made in pursuance of it. The nullity of any act inconsistent with the constitution is produce by the declaration that the constitution is the supreme law. The appropriate application of that part of the clause which confers the same supremacy on laws and treaties is to such acts of the state legislatures as do not transcend these powers, but, though enacted in the execution of acknowledged state powers, interfere with or are contrary to the laws of congress, made in pursuance of the constitution, or some treaty made under the authority of the United States. In every such case the act of congress, or the treaty, is supreme; and the law of the state, though enacted in the exercise of powers not controverted, must yield to it.' [163 U.S. 299, 310] These principles are illustrated in numerous decisions of this court, to some of which it is proper to refer.
In Cooley v. Board, 12 How. 299, 320, it was adjudged that the mere grant to congress of the power to regulate commerce did not deprive the states of power to regulate pilots on the public navigable waters of the United States.
These authorities make it clear that the legislative enactments of the states passed under their admitted police powers, and having a real relation to the domestic peace, order, health, and safety of their people, but which by their necessary operation, affect to some extent, or for a limited time, the conduct of commerce among the states, are yet not invalid by force alone of the grant of power to congress to regulate such commerce, and, if not obnoxious to some other constitutional provision or destructive of some right secured by the fundamental law, are to be respected in the courts of the Union until they are superseded and displaced by some act of congress passed in execution of the power granted to it by the constitution. Local laws of the character mentioned have their source in the powers which the states reserved, and never surrendered to congress, of providing for the public health, the public morals, and the public safety, and are not, within the meaning of the constitution, and considered in their own nature, regulations of interstate commerce, simply because, for a limited time or to a limited extent, they cover [163 U.S. 299, 318] the field occupied by those engaged in such commerce. The statute of Georgia is not directed against interstate commerce. It establishes a rule of civil conduct applicable alike to all freight trains, domestic as well as interstate. It applies to the transportation of interstate freight the same rule precisely that it applies to the transportation of domestic freight. And it places the business of transporting freight in the same category as all other secular business. It simply declares that, on and during the day fixed by law as a day of rest for all the people within the limits of the state from toil and labor incident to their callings, the transportation of freight shall be suspended.
We are of opinion that such a law, although in a limited degree affecting interstate commerce, is not, for that reason, a needless intrusion upon the domain of federal jurisdiction, nor strictly a regulation of interstate commerce, but, considered in its own nature, is an ordinary police regulation, designed to secure the well-being and to promote the general welfare of the people within the state by which it was established, and, therefore, not invalid by force, alone, of the constitution of the United States.
The CHIEF JUSTICE, with whom concurred Mr. Justice WHITE, dissenting.
Intercours and trade between the states by means of railroads passing through several states, is a matter national in its character, and admitting of uniform regulation. The power of congress to regulate it is exclusive, and under the constitution it is free and untrammeled except as congress otherwise provides. This statute, in requiring the suspension of interstate commerce for one day in the week, amounts to a regulation of that commerce, and is invalid, because the power of congress in that regard is exclusive. But it is said that the act is not a regulation of commerce, but a mere regulation of police, and that the so-called police power of a state is plenary. The result, however, is the same. When a power of a state and [163 U.S. 299, 319] a power of the general government come into collision, the former must give way; and, as the freedom of interstate commerce is secured by the constitution, except as congress shall limit it, the act is void, because in violation of that freedom.

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