Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/270/402/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 21:47:45+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 270 › Weaver v. Palmer Brothers Co.
Due process does not allow the government to ban the use of a certain fill material in bedding.
Palmer Bros. Co. produced three million comfortables per year, of which 750,000 were filled with a mix of rags and debris known as shoddy. It was a Connecticut company that sold some of its products in Pennsylvania. A Pennsylvania law prohibited the use of shoddy in making comfortables. The state failed to produce evidence that the use of shoddy was connected to diseases or other health risks, and the material could be cheaply sanitized.
This law fails the rational basis standard of review because it is an arbitrary and unreasonable measure that has no connection to public health. There is no evidence showing that users of these bedding products are subject to health risks, whether or not they are sterilized, and in any event they can be easily and cheaply sterilized.
The legislature should have received more deference in making its factual determinations regarding the use of unsterilized shoddy. Its measures should be deemed constitutional if it finds that there is a significant health risk and that there is no other way to avert it.
Since the evidence showed that there was no health rationale for the law, it could be struck down under rational basis review because it no longer had any purpose.
1. Legislative determinations 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. P. 270 U. S. 410.
2. Invalidity of a legislative act may be shown by things that may be judicially noticed, or by facts established by evidence, the burden being on the attacking party to establish the invalidating facts. P. 270 U. S. 410.
3. A state law (Pa.Ls.1923, c. 802) forbidding the use, in comfortables, of shoddy, even when sterilized, is so far arbitrary and unreasonable that it violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Pp. 270 U. S. 410, 270 U. S. 415.
4. Without considering whether the mere failure of the Act to prohibit the use of other filling materials is sufficient to invalidate the prohibition of the use of shoddy as a violation of the equal protection clause, 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. P. 270 U. S. 412.
5. Such a prohibition cannot be sustained, as a health measure, in face of evidence showing that shoddy, even when composed of second-hand materials, is rendered harmless by sterilization, and in face of permission in the same Act to use numerous other kinds of materials if sterilized when second-hand. P. 270 U. S. 411.
6. Nor can such prohibition be sustained as a measure to prevent deception, since deception may be avoided by adequate regulations. P. 270 U. S. 414.
7. Constitutional guaranties cannot be made to yield to mere convenience. P. 270 U. S. 415.
8. Every opinion of the Court is to be read with regard to the facts of the case and the question actually decided. Powell v. Pennsylvania, 127 U. S. 678, distinguished. P. 270 U. S. 414.
Appeal from a decree of the district court enjoining the defendant (appellant), an official of Pennsylvania, from enforcing against the plaintiff (appellee) a law of that state regulating the manufacture and sale of bedding, insofar as it forbade the use of shoddy. Plaintiff manufactured comfortables in Connecticut, using shoddy made of new and second-hand materials, and sold its product in Pennsylvania. See also 266 U.S. 588.
hair, jute, kapok, or other soft material."
"any cover, quilt, or quilted article made of cotton or other textile material, and stuffed or filled with fibre, cotton, wool, hair, jute, feathers, feather down, kapok, or other soft material."
"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. 'Secondhand' means 'any material or article of which prior use has been made.' 'Shoddy' means 'any material which has been spun into yarn, knit or woven into fabric, and subsequently cut up, torn up, broken up, or ground up."
"No person shall employ or use in the making, remaking, or renovating of any mattress, pillow, bolster, feather bed, comfortable, cushion, or article of upholstered furniture: (a) any material known as 'shoddy,' or any fabric or material from which 'shoddy' is constructed; (b) any second-hand material, unless, since last used, such second-hand material has been thoroughly sterilized and disinfected by a reasonable process approved by the commissioner of labor and industry; (c) any new or second-hand feathers, unless such new or second-hand feathers have been sterilized and disinfected by a reasonable process approved by the commissioner of labor and industry."
Punishment by fine or imprisonment is prescribed for every violation of the Act, and each sale is declared to be a separate offense.
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.
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.
materials and new and second-hand feathers when sterilized, and it regulates processes for such sterilization.
There was no evidence that any sickness or disease was ever caused by the use of shoddy, and the record contains persuasive evidence, and by citation discloses the opinions of scientists eminent in fields related to public health, that the transmission of disease-producing bacteria is almost entirely by immediate contact with, or close proximity to, infected persons; that such bacteria perish rapidly when separated from human or animal organisms, and that there is no probability that such bacteria or vermin likely to carry them survive after the period usually required for the gathering of the materials, the production of shoddy, and the manufacture and the shipping of comfortables. This evidence tends strongly to show that, in the absence of sterilization or disinfection, there would be little, if any, danger to the health of the users of comfortables filled with shoddy, new or second-hand, and confirms the conclusion that all danger from the use of shoddy may be eliminated by sterilization.
from things that the state is deemed to have power to suppress as inherently dangerous.
Many states have enacted laws to regulate bedding for the protection of health. Legislation in Illinois (Laws 1915, p. 375) went beyond mere regulation, and prohibited the sale of second-hand quilts or comfortables, even when sterilized, or when remade from sterilized second-hand materials. In People v. Weiner, 271 Ill. 74, the state supreme court held that to prohibit the use of material not inherently dangerous and that might be rendered safe by reasonable regulation transgresses the constitutional protection of personal and property rights.
such is not the fact. Under the circumstances disclosed in the record, and in obedience to settled rules of constitutional construction, it must be assumed that such is the fact."
And see Powell v. Commonwealth, 114 Pa.St. 265, 279, 295.
"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.
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.
If the Legislature of Pennsylvania was of opinion that disease is likely to be spread by the use of unsterilized shoddy in comfortables, I do not suppose that this Court would pronounce the opinion so manifestly absurd that it could not be acted upon. If we should not, then I think that we ought to assume the opinion to be right for the purpose of testing the law. The legislature may have been of opinion further that the actual practice of filling comfortables with unsterilized shoddy gathered from filthy floors was widespread, and this again we must assume to be true. It is admitted to be impossible to distinguish the innocent from the infected product in any practicable way when it is made up into the comfortables. On these premises, if the legislature regarded the danger as very great and inspection and tagging as inadequate remedies, it seems to me that, in order to prevent the spread of disease, it constitutionally could forbid any use of shoddy for bedding and upholstery. Notwithstanding the broad statement in Schlesinger v. Wisconsin the other day, I do not suppose that it was intended to overrule Purity Extract & Tonic Co. v. Lynch, 226 U. S. 192, and the other cases to which I referred there.
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.

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