Austin v. Tennessee

Citations

• 179 U.S. 343
• 21 S. Ct. 132
• 45 L. Ed. 224
• 1900 U.S. LEXIS 1877

Syllabus

<p>Tobacco being a legitimate article of commerce, the court cannot take judicial notice of the fact that it is more noxious in the form of cigEbrettes than in any other. It is, however, to the same extent as intoxicat-. ing liquors, within the police power of the State.</p> <p>It is within the province of the legislature to declare how far cigarettes may be sold, or to prohibit their sale entirely, after they have been taken from the original packages or have left the hands of the importer, provided no discrimination be used as against those imported from other States, and there be no reason to doubt that the act in question is designed for the protection of the public health.</p> <p>Original packages are such as are used in bona fide transactions carried on between the manufacturer and wholesale dealers residing in different States. Where the size of the package is such as to indicate that it was prepared for the purpose of evading the law of- the State to which it is sent, it will, not be protected as an original package against the police laws .of that State.</p> <p>Where cigarettes were imported in paper packages of three inches in length and one and one half in width, containing ten cigarettes, unboxed but thrown loosely into baskets: held, that such paper parcels were not original packages within-the meaning of the law, and that such importations were evidently made for the purpose of evading the law of the State prohibiting the sale of cigarettes.</p>

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