delivered the opinion of the court.
The Michigan Local Option Law of 1889 (Pub. Acts, No. 207), makes it unlawful to manufacture or sell malt, vinous, spirituous or intoxicating liquors in any county where a maj ority of the electors vote in favor of prohibition.
The provisions of the law, howevér, do not (§ 1) apply to druggists selling such liquors in compliance’ with the restrictions imposed upon them by the general laws of this State. It was also provided (§ 15) that “nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prohibit the sale of wine for sacramental purposes, nor shall anything herein con-
By amendments passed in 1899 and T903 -(acts of 1899, p. 280; acts of 1903, p. 229), it was further provided that the act should not bey construed to “prohibit the sale of wine or cider made from home grown fruit in quantities of not less than five gallons, nor . . . to.'prohibit the manufacture of wine or cider, nor . 1 . to prohibit the sále at wholesale of wine or cider manufactured in said [dry] county to parties who reside outside of said county.”
As'a result of an election held April 13, 1909, the law became operative in Jackson County on May 1st, 1909. The defendants, who were officers of a brewing company, were charged with having thereafter manufactured beer in that county, in violation of the statute. They moved to quash the Information, upon the ground that the act was void because it interfered with interstate commerce, took property without due process of law, and so discriminated against them and other manufacturers residing in dry counties as to deny.them the equal protection of the law. These defenses were overruled. On the trial they offered evidence tending to show that the beer which they had manufactured had not been made for sale, but to be used in causing re-fermentation of 1600 barrels of beer worth $5 a barrel, which was on hand at the date of the election, with a view of making it salable, and thereby save themselves against loss. Under the charge of the court, the jury returned a verdict of guilty. The case was then taken to the Supreme Court of Michigan, which held (167 Michigan, 477) that the amendments of 1899 and 1903 (permitting the manufacture and sale of wine and cider in dry counties), were void as an unlawful discrimination against the products and citizens of other States and
1. The argument here was principally directed to a discussion of this assignment of error — the defendants contending that the discriminatory wine-and-cider amendments formed an integral part of the law (Endlich on Statutes, §§ 94, 294) which had been submitted to the voters and which, when adopted, it was claimed, was adopted as a whole. It was insisted that the provisions permitting the manufacture and sale of wine and cider induced many to vote for the law as amended, and it was, in effect, argued that these amendments could not be treated as a part of the statute for the purpose of carrying the election and then be held void in order to save the law from being set aside as discriminatory. In support of this contention, defendants relied on
State ex rel. Huston
v. Commissioners, 5 Oh. St. 497, where the court was considering a local option statute, one section of which provided for an election to determine whether a county seat should be removed, and another (§ 5) contained unconstitutional provisions which were such "as would naturally influence the vote upon the adoption or rejection of the first and main section.” It was held that: “The provisions of both sections are made equally to depend upon
2. It is true that the fact that these amendments were on the statute book may have influenced electors. Some may have voted for the law because of the supposed permission to make wine. Others may have opposed its adoption because of the supposed exemption of wine from the operation of the act. But in either event these void amendments were not a part of the law but extraneous inducements which may or may not have determined the result. The attack, therefore, goes rather to the regularity of the adoption than to the constitutionality of the statute after it had been adopted for Jackson County. But it was for the state court to determine that matter and to decide whether the election was void because the question apparently submitted was the adoption of the law and amendments, when, in reality, only, the law itself was submitted. This court, on writ of error from a state court cannot inquire into the motives or arguments which influence men to vote for. or against a measure. Neither can we reverse the decision of the state court, and declare the act inoperative in Jackson County because the electors thereof may have voted under a misapprehension as to the matter submitted, any more than we could set aside a statute because it had been enacted contrary to parliamentary rules relating to the introduction, debate and
3. Nor can the judgment be reversed because the original act, while prohibiting liquor to be sold by merchants permitted it to be sold by druggists for medicinal, mechanical or scientific purposes. The contention that this was an unlawful discrimination is answered by
Kidd
v.
Pearson,
4. It was further contended that the act takes property without due process of law because it made no provision for the sale of liquor on hand at the time the law became operative. But the record does not call for a decision of that question, nor does it bring the case within the principle, suggested in
Bartemeyer
v.
Iowa,
Liquor laws are enacted by virtue of the police power to protect the health, morals and welfare of the public. Such laws may operate to depreciate the principal value of distilleries, breweries and other property, in use and on hand when the law is passed, but it has been held in many cases that such depreciation is hot the taking of property prohibited by the Constitution.
Boston Beer Co.
v.
Massachusetts,
Affirmed.