Burrows v. Moran

Citations

• 81 Fla. 662
• 89 So. 111

Syllabus

<p>1. The Eighteenth Amendment is the supreme law of both the United States and the State governments. It specifically commands stated prohibitions and likewise commands that “the Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”</p> <p>2. The second section of the Eighteenth Amendment confers upon the Congress and the several States, each within its jurisdiction, power by its own enactments and procedure, to separately enforce the commanded prohibitions, such power in particular cases, to be exercised by either one, but by only one of the two sovereignties, to the end that violations of the specified organic prohibitions shall be redressed by one if the other fails to act, or by the first one to attain jurisdiction in any case.</p> <p>3. The “appropriate legislation” to enforce the organic prohibitions of the Eighteeenth Amendment must conform to applicable provisions of organic law relative to property and liberty that are not modified by the Eighteenth Amendment as to the particular subjects.</p> <p>4. While the Congress and the States may have implied or incidental power to define and enforce other propositions to make effective the organic mandate of the Eighteenth Amendment, yet such incidental power is to be exercised subject to other provisions of the Federal Constitution that are not controlled in their operation by the commands of the Eighteenth Amendment.</p> <p>5. Where a statute in one section defines an offense and in another section states exceptions to the definition, such exceptions are defensive matters and need not he alleged in charging the offense.</p> <p>6. Where a judgment has legal basis in a valid statute, and the judgment is not for other reasons illegal or void, the dtsfendant will not he discharged on habeas corpus.</p>