State ex rel. Wynne v. Lee

Citations

• 106 La. 400

Syllabus

<p>Syllabus.</p> <p>1. A court vested with original jurisdiction ratione materiae and ratione personae is competent to pass upon the constitutionality of a statute under which a criminal prosecution is conducted before it, and its judgment therein is authoritative and conclusive so long as it remains the judgment of the highest court vested with such jurisdiction.</p> <p>2. There is no inflexible rule with respect to the stage of the proceedings in the inferior court at which the application for the writ of prohibition must be made, and this court will liberally use its discretion in the use of that writ, according to the circumstances of each case, where there is something yet to be done in excess of the jurisdiction conferred upon such inferior court.</p> <p>3. It is not too late to apply for such relief, where there is no remedy by appeal, upon an averment of want of jurisdiction, based upon the alleged unconstitutionality of the statute under which the applicant has been convicted and sentenced, if such application be made before the sentence has been executed.</p> <p>Í. The title of Act No. 49 of 1894 expresses but one object, and Section 12 of said act does not go beyond the title, by denouncing the mere selling of drugs and nostrums, etc., as an offense, the offense there denounced consisting of the itinerant vendors professing to treat and cure disease and deformity by the use of the drugs, nostrums, etc., sold by him, and by the other means mentioned.</p>