Court Opinion

ID: 9666892
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:29:27.714155+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:33.427003
License: Public Domain

LAWSON, Justice
(concurring specially)-
I concur in the opinion prepared for the Court by Mr. Justice STAKELY except insofar as it treats of the constitutionality of the statutes here involved. Since the Court holds those statutes to be applicable only to intrastate business and that the taxpayer is engaged exclusively in interstate business, there is no occasion to write to the constitutional question as to whether those statutes would be constitutional if construed as applying to interstate commerce. We have a long line of cases which hold that the constitutionality of a statute will not be determined unless absolutely necessary to determine the merits of the suit in which the constitutionality of such statute has been drawn in question. Smith v. Speed, 50 Ala. 276; Shehane v. Bailey, 110 Ala. 308, 20 So. 359; Smith v. McQueen, 232 Ala. 90, 166 So. 788; State ex rel. Bland v. St. John, 244 Ala. 269, 13 So.2d 161; Moses v. Tarwater, 257 Ala. 361, 58 So.2d 757; Donaghey v. Owen, 259 Ala. 376, 66 So.2d 895. See Alabama State Federation of Labor, Local Union No. 103, etc., v. McAdory, 325 U.S. 450, 65 S.Ct. 1384, 89 L.Ed. 1725. The opinion in this case shows no reason why this salutary rule is not applicable and I feel that to ignore that rule will result in having the instant case cited in the future as showing that the Court followed the rule only when it feels it convenient to do so.