Case: STOUTENBURGH v. HENNICK
Abbreviation: Stoutenburgh v. Hennick
Decision Date: 1889-01-14
Docket Number: No. 722
Citation: 129 U.S. 141
Volume: 129
Reporter: United States Reports
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Parties: STOUTENBURGH v. HENNICK.
Judges: 
Pages: 141–151

Head Matter:
STOUTENBURGH v. HENNICK.
ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
No. 722.
Submitted December 18, 1888.
Decided January 14, 1889.
Tinder the authority conferred upon Congress by § 8, Article I, of the Constitution, “to make all laws which shall be necessary or proper for carrying into execution” the power “to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over” the District of Columbia, Congress.may constitute the District “ a body corporate for municipal purposes,” but can only authorize it to exorcise municipal powers.
The Act of the Legislative Assembly of the District of Columbia of August 28, 1871, as amended June 20, 1872, relating to license taxes on persons engaging in trade, business or profession within the District, was intended to be a regulation of a purely municipal character-; but nevertheless the provision in clause 8, of § 21, which required commercial agents, engaged in offering merchandise for sale by sample, to take out and pay for such a license, is a regulation of interstate commerce, so far as applicable .to persons soliciting the sale of goods on behalf of individuals or firms doing business outside of the District, and it was not within the constitutional power of Congress to delegate to that legislature authority to enact a clause with such a provision, nor did it in fact do so in a grant of power for municipal purposes.
Bobbins v. Shelby County Taxing District, 120 U. S. 489, and Asher v. Texas, 128 U. S. 129, affirmed.
The repeal or modification by Congress of clauses in a legislative act of th.. District of Columbia, which are separable and separably operative, is no ratification of another clause in it, equally separable and separably operative, which it was beyond the delegated or constitutional power of the Legislature of the District to enact.
HeNNicK, the defendant in error,
was convicted in the Police Court of the District of Columbia, upon an information stating that he, in April, 1887, “ did engage in the business of a commercial agent, to wit, the business of offering for sale, as agent of Lyons, Conklin & Co., a firm doing business in the city of Baltimore, State of Maryland, certain goods, wares, and merchandise by sample, catalogue, and otherwise, without having first obtained a license to do so, contrary to and in violation of an act of the late Legislative Assembly of • the District of Columbia, entitled ‘An act imposing a license on trades, business, and professions practised or carried on in the District of Columbia,’ and providing for the enforcement and collection of fines and penalties for carrying on business in the said District without license, approved August 23, a.d. 1871, and the amendments to the said act, approved June 20,. a.d. Í872,” and' sentenced “ to pay a fine of five dollars, in addition to the license tax of two hundred dollars, and in default to be committed to the workhouse for the term of- sixty days,” and being in default -was so committed. He applied to one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the District for, and obtained, a writ of habeas corf us, which was certified to be heard in the first instance in the' general term of that court, and, upon hearing, it was held “ that the. law for the violation of which the petitioner is held is not a valid law,” and his discharge from custody was ordered accordingly; whereupon this writ of error was sued out. ■
The act in question was passed by the then Legislative •Assembly of the District, August 23,-1871, and amended. June 20, 1872 (Laws District Columbia, Acts First Session, p. 87; Acts Second Session, p. 60), and by its'first section it was provided: “ That no person shall be engaged in any trade,' business, or profession hereinafter mentioned,AMtil he shall have obtained a license therefor as hereinafter provided.” '
. Then followed twenty-three sections of which the twenty-first is subdivided into forty-eight clauses. Clause 3 was so amended as to read: “ Commercial agents shall pay, two hundred dollars annually. Every person whose business it is, as agent, to offer-for sale goods, wares or merchandise by sample, catalogue or otherwise, shall be regarded as a commercial agent.” •
Section 4 of the act is in these words, “ That every person liable for license tax, \Vho, failing to pay the same within thirty days after the same has become due and payable, for such neglect shall, in addition to the license tax imposed, pay a fine or penalty of not less than five nor more than fifty dollars, and a like fine or penalty for every subsequent offence.”
And then follows a proviso not material here.
A part of the act was repealed by Congress, February 17,, 1873, 17 Stat. 464; the 23d section and clauses 20 and 35 of the 21st section, and clause 16'of the 21st section as amended, were repealed and modified July 12, 1876, 19 Stat. 88, as weré also, on January 26,1887, parts of clause 38 of § 21 as amended, and of § 15.
Sections 1 and 18 of the act of Congress of February 21, 1871, entitled “ An act to provide a government for. the District of Columbia,” 16 Stat. 419, are as follows:
“ Seo. E That all that part of the territory of the' United' States included within the limits of the District of Columbia be, and the same is hereby, created into a government by the name of the District of Columbia, by which name it is hereby constituted a body corporate for municipal purposes, and may contract and be contracted with, sue and' be sued, plead and be impleaded, have a seal, and exercise all other powers of a municipal corporation not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and the provisions of this act.”
“ Seo. 18. That the legislative power of the District shall extend' to an rrgnttui subjects of legislation within said District-, consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act, .subject, nevertheless, to all the restrictions and limitations imposed upon States by the tenth section of the first article of the Constitution of the United States; but - all acts of the legislative assembly shall at all times be subject to repeal or modification by the Congress of the United States, and nothing herein shall be construed to deprive Congress of the power of legislation over said District in as ample manner as if this law had not been enacted.”
, These sections are carried forward into the act of Congress of June- 20, 1874, entitled “An act to revise and consolidate the statutes of the United States, general and permanent in their nature, relating, to the District of Columbia, in force on the first day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight .hundred and seventy-three,” as sections 2, 49 and 50.
Mr.- Ilenry E. Davis for plaintiff in error.
. I. The power of the Legislative Assembly, which emanated from Congress, extended “ to all rightful subjects of legislation within'the District consistent with the Constitution. of the United States ■. •. . subject to all' the restrictions and .limitations imposed.upon States by the tenth section of the first article of the Constitution of the United States,” and all acts of the Assembly were “subject to repeal or modification by .the Congress of the United States.” Ee'v. Stat.' Dist. Col. §§.49,50.;
•The extent of the power-thus conferred upon the Legislative Assembly was considered • by the Supreme Court of the District of' Columbia in Roach v. Vcm Riswick, McArthur & Mackay, ■ 171; Cooper v. District of Columbia, McArthur .& Mackay,. 250; and .District of Columbia v. Waggamcm, 4.Mackay, 328and in the last-mentioned case the very license act.under, consideration was held as within the power; and in District of Columbia v. Dyster, 4 Mackay, 285, the act was administered by the same court without any question or expression of doubt as to its being properly within the power granted and properly grantable by Congress to.the Assembly.
The effect of this is that this legislation, being that of a .duly authorized agent of Congress, is that of Congress itself. And even if that were not so, Congress has adopted, it in the several acts of .February 17, 1873, c. 148, 17 Stat. 464; July .12, 1876, c. 180, § 19, 19 Stat. 83; and January 26,1887, c. 48, 24 Stat. 368; in part amending and in part repealing the act of the Assembly, whereby, by the clearest implication, the rest of the act is adopted.
II. The question raised by the petition is supposed to find support in Art. 1, § 8, of the Constitution of the United States, clauses 1 and 3, and in § 9 of the same article, clause 6.
As- to the first of these provisions, it is enough to say that the license tax in question .is not a duty, an impost, or an excise, and is not, therefore, within that provision requiring uniformity throughout the United States. As to the-last, the license law for the District of Columbia gives no preference to the ports of any State, or even of the District, over those of any other State, and it is not easily conceived how -that clause can be thought to have any relevancy to the subject in hand.
A question seems, however, to be' presented by the remaining of the three clauses above enumerated, viz., whether, as a regulation of commerce, the license Jaw for the District is invalid, as obnoxious to the Constitution of the United States.
a. Whether the law regulates -commerce, in the sense of the Constitution, is immaterial. Whether it does so regulate commerce may be determined by the following cases: Robbins v. Shelby Taxing District, 120 U. S. 489; Corson v. Maryland, 120 U. S. 502; Fargo v. Michigan, 121 U. S. 230; Ouachita Packet Co. v. Aiken, 121 U. S. 444; Philadelphia c&c. Steamship Co. v. Pennsyloo/nia, 122 U. S! 32-6 ; Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Pendleton, 122 U. S. 347; Bowman v. Chicago dec. Railway Co., 125 U. S. 465 ; Ratterman v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 127 U. S, 411; Lelovp v. Port of Mobile, 127 U. S. 640.
b. In any event it is certain that, as above pointed out, the law is, in effect, a,n enactment of Congress.
g. The question, then, becomes: has Congress power under the Constitution to pass such a law ? As to the extent of its power to legislate over the District of Columbia, it is sufficient to refer to Chief Justice Marshall’s opinion in Loughborough v. Blake, 5 Wheat. 317, 324; and, touching the power to regulate commerce, to what is said in Gibbons v. Ogden-, 9 Wheat. 1, 196,197.
What limitations then exist on the power of Congress in regulating commerce ? Seemingly none, except those distinctly prescribed by the Constitution, none of which apply to this case. And this legislation both emanated from Congress, and has been adopted by it, and has the same validity as if its provisions had been specifically made by ,it.
d. The recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in Robbins v. Taxing District, eto., ubi supra, in reality do not affect the question under consideration.
In those cases it was held only that given laws of the States concerned were invalid, as dealing with the subject of commerce, which, by the ■ Constitution, was committed to Congress. The power of Congress, its extent and its limitations in the premises, were not under consideration.
e. The petitioner has no right to complain of the District license law. He is hot a member of a foreign nation or an Indian tribe, and the law does not affect commerce “ among the several States.”
The District of Columbia is not a State, in the meaning off the Constitution. Hepburn v. Ellzey, 2 Oranch, 445 ‘,-New Orleans v. Winter, 1 Wheat. 91; Scott v. Jones, 5 How. 342, 377; Barney v. Baltimore, 6 Wall. 280, 287; Railroad Go. v. Harris, 12 Wall. 65, 86.
And ia respect of regulating commerce there is in the Con-. stitutiora. no prohibition upon either Congress or any State to discriminate for or against the District, as between it ahd- such or any State. “The sole restraints” against abuse ’in this respect are those mentioned by Chief Justice Marshall in . Gibbons v.. Ogden ; and disregard of those restraints can only be reached by counter-legislation; they cannot be affected by any action of the judiciary.
Mr. Francis M. Darby, Mr. Shipwith Wilrner, Mr. Johii Henry Keene, Jr., Mr. Archibald Stirling, Mr. Henry Wise Gannett, and Mr. Guión Miller for defendant in error.

Opinion:
Me. Chief Justioe Fullee,
after' stating-the case, delivered the opinion of the court:
It is a cardinal principle of our system of. government, that local affairs shall be managed by local authorities, and general affairs by the c'entral authority, and hence, while the r.ule is also fundamental that the power' to make laws cannot be delegated, the creation of municipalities exercising local self-government has never been held to trench upon that rule.Such legislation is not regarded, as a transfer of general- legislative power, but rather as the grant of the authority to prescribe local regulations, according to immemorial practice, subject of course to the interposition of the superior in cases of necessity.
Congress has express power " to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases, whatsoever " over the District of Columbia, thus possessing the combined powers of a general and of a State government in all cases where legislation is possible. But- as-the repository of the legislative power of the United-States, Congress in creating the District of Columbia " a body corporate for municipal purposes " could only authorize it to exercise municipal powers, and this is all that Congress attempted to do.
The act of the Legislative Assembly under which Hennick was convicted, imposed, as stated in its title, "a license on trades, business, and professions practiced or carried on in the' District of Columbia," and required by clause three of section-twenty-one, among other persons in- trade, commercial agents,', whose business it was to offer merchandise for sale by sample, to take out and pay for such license. • This provision- was manifestly regarded as a regulation of a purely municipal character, as is perfectly obvious, upon the principle' of noscitur a sociis, if the clause be taken as it. should be, in connection with the other clauses and -parts of. the act.- 'But. it is indistinguishable from- that held void in Robbins v. Shelby Taxing District, 120 U. S. 489, and Asher v. Texas, 128 U. S. 129, as being a regulation of interstate commerce, so far as applicable to persons soliciting, as Ilennick was, the sale of goods on behalf of individuals or firms doing business outside the District.
The conclusions announced in the case of Dobbins were that 'the power granted .to Congress to regulate commerce is necessarily exclusive whenever the subjects of it are national or admit only of. one uniform system or plan of regulation throughout the. country, and in such case the failure of Congress to miake express regulations is equivalent to indicating its will that the subject shall be left free; that in the matter of interstate commerce the United States are but one country, and are and must be subject to one system of regulations, and not to a multitude of systems; and that a State statute requiring persons soliciting the sale of goods on behalf of individuals or firms doing business in another State to pay license fees for permission to do so, is, in the absence of congressional action, a regulation of commerce in violation of the Constitution. The business referred to is thus definitively assigned to that class of-subjects which calls for uniform rules and national legislation, and is excluded from that class which can be best regulated by rules and provisions suggested by the varying circumstances of different localities, and limited in their operation • to such localities respectively. Cooley v. Board of Wardens, 12 How. 299; Gilman v. Philadelphia, 3 Wall. 713. It falls, therefore, within the domain of the great, distinct, substantive power to regulate commerce, the exercise of which cannot be treated as a mere matter of local concern, and committed to those immediately interested in the affairs of a particular locality
It is forcibly argued that it is beyond the power of Congress to pass a law of the character in question solely for the Dis- ' trict of Columbia, because whenever Congress acts upon the subject, the regulations it establishes must constitute a system applicable' to the whole country; but the disposition of this case calls for no. expression of opinion upon that point.
In our judgment Congress, for the reasons given, could not' have delegated the power to enact the 3d clause of the 21st section of the act of assembly, construed to include business agents such as Hennick, and there is nothing in this record to justify the assumption that it endeavored to do- so, for the powers granted to the District were municipal merely, and although by several acts, Congress repealed or modified parts of this particular by-law, these parts were separably operative and such as were within the scope of municipal action, so that this congressional legislation cannot be resorted to as ratifying the objectionable clause, irrespective of the inability, to ratify that which could not originally have been authorized.-
The- judgment of the Supreme Court of the District is
Affirmed.