Nolan v. Jones

Citations

• 263 Pa. 124
• 106 A. 235
• 1919 Pa. LEXIS 383

Syllabus

<p>Constitutional law — Declaration of rights — Privileges and immunities of citizens — Special and class legislation — Police powers — • Cold storage law — Butter—Act of May 16,1918, P. L. 216 — Constituiiion, Article I, Section 1, Article III, Section 7 — Federal Constitution, nth Amendment.</p> <p>1. The Act of' May 16, 1913, P. L. 216, entitled “An act for the protection of the public health and the prevention of fraud and deception, by regulating the storage and sale of cold storage foods; fixing penalties for the violation of the provisions thereof, and providing for the enforcement thereof,” and enactifig in Section 13 of the act that no butter which is held in cold storage for a longer period than nine months shall be. sold, offered or exposed for sale, does not, as to such enactment violate the bill of rights so far as the latter guarantees the free and unhampered enjoyment of property, or Section 7, Article III, of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, which prohibits legislation granting exclusive privileges and immunities to a special class, or the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, which forbids property to be taken without due process of law.</p> <p>2. The cold storage law is a legitimate exercise of the police power of the State for the protection of public health.</p> <p>3. No part of the Federal Constitution, or any of the amendments thereto, takes from the states the right to determine what shall be prohibited as prejudicial to the public good; and the</p> <p>fact that, under the peculiar Circumstances of any given case, the particular article condemned happens to be “wholesome” cannot affect the application of a legitimate police statute comprehending a whole class of objects, of which the kind in question is one, the class being such as reasonably justifies regulation for the preservation of the public health.</p> <p>4. The details of such regulation are for the legislature to determine, not subject to judicial rejection,