Compagnie Francaise De Navigation a Vapeur v. State Board of Health

Citations

• 51 La. Ann. 645
• 56 L.R.A. 795
• 25 So. 591
• 1899 La. LEXIS 447

Syllabus

<p>Syllabus.</p> <p>The General Assembly of this State, in enacting Act No. 192 of 1898, creating a State Board of Health and defining its powers and duties, was not acting or claiming to act under “a power to regulate commerce,” as the source from which it derived the right to pass the act. Its source was the police power of the State, exercised for the protection and preservation of the public health.</p> <p>Section 8 of the act, authorizing the State Board of Health, at its discretion, to prohibit the introduction into any infected portions of the State of persons, acclimated, unacelimated, or said to be immune, when in its judgment the introduction 'of such persons would add to or increase the prevalence of the disease, is not unconstitutional as infringing upon the right and power of Congress to regulate commerce, or in contravention of treaties with Prance and Italy, or of the immigration laws of the General Government, or of any rights secured by the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States. (In re Rahrer, 140 U. S., 554 ; Gibbons vs. Ogden, 9 Wh. 203.)</p> <p>■Nor is the Act No. 192 of 1898, unconstitutional as violative of Article 31 of the State Constitution of 1898, which declares that “every law enacted by the General Assembly shall embrace but one object, and that shall be expressed by its title.” The authority to the Board of Health to prohibit the introduction into any infected portion of the State of persons acclimated, unacclimated, or said to be immune, from coming on shipboard from any foreign countries and ports whether infected or not, when in the Judgment of said Board the introduction of such persons would add to or increase the prevalence of the disease, could very legitimately be referred to several clauses of the title of the Act. It would be very properly covered by its declared object of “carrying into effect Article 296 of the Constitution of the State, providing for the establishment and organization of a State Boar