182 P. 107 | Mont. | 1919
delivered the opinion of the court.
The defendant was convicted of the crime of sedition, and has appealed from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial. /
The attorney general insists that the new trial proceedings were not properly before the lower court and that its action thereon is not subject to review. The question raised involves the right or authority of the county attorney, after the statutory time for filing a notice of intention to move for a new trial had expired, to stipulate that the notice might be filed out of time and the motion heard without objection upon that ground. The
The information charges that on March 6, 1918, in Carbon county, Montana, the defendant willfully, seditiously and feloniously did utter the language following: “This is a rich man’s war, and we have no business in it. 'They talk about Hoover-ism — it’s a joke. Nobody pays any attention to it. It don’t amount to anything. The ‘Lusitania’ was warned not to sail. They were carrying munitions and wheat over for the Allies. The poor man has no show in this war. The soldiers are fighting the battles of the rich. ’ ’
It is the contention of appellant that the Act defining sedition
The government of the United States is one of delegated powers, but, within the limits prescribed by the Constitution, its authority is supreme. The Constitution of the United States, the laws enacted and treaties made in pursuance thereof, constitute the supreme law of the land, binding upon the courts, anything in the Constitution or laws of the state to the contrary notwithstanding. (Article VI, U. S. Constitution.) If the people by express declaration, or by necessary intendment, have surrendered to the general government the authority to define sedition, it follows as of course that they themselves may not do so. The converse is equally true. “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people.” (Tenth Amendment, U. S. Constitution.)
The subject was recently treated at length by the supreme court of Minnesota, and a statute having the same general purpose in view was upheld. (State v. Holm, 139 Minn. 267, L. R. A. 1918C, 304, 166 N. W. 181.) In the notes to that case, reported in L. R. A. 1918C, 304, it is said that the conclusion reached seems to be clearly in accord with the interpretation placed by earlier decisions on the federal Constitution and laws of Congress enacted pursuant thereto, although no case of a precisely similar nature has been found.
In view of the important part played by the several states in the wars in which this country has been engaged, we think it cannot be contended successfully that in granting the war powers to Congress the states divested themselves of all authority to aid the general government in time of war. If this state has the power to assist the United States in war, then the means through which the power is exerted is a proper subject of legislative discretion and judgment. Our conclusion upon this branch of the case is that our Sedition Act does not infringe upon the exclusive war powers of Congress.
2. It is urged that the statute violates the guaranty of free
3. It is insisted that the statute characterizes certain acts as
It is a rule of universal recognition that in testing the validity
4. No restraint was imposed upon the defendant in his efforts
5. Complaint is made that instructions 2 and 16 are contradictory and misleading. Instruction 2 was given at the instance
“No motion for a new trial on the ground of errors in the instructions given shall be granted by the district court unless the error so assigned.was specifically pointed out and excepted to at the settlement of the instructions, as herein provided; and no cause shall be reversed by the supreme court for any error in instructions which was not specifically pointed out and éxcepted to at the settlement of the instructions herein specified, and such error and exception incorporated in and settled in the bill of exceptions as herein provided.” (State v. Cook, 42 Mont. 329, 112 Pac. 537.)
6; Error is predicated upon the refusal of the court to give defendant’s' offered instrúction No. 13 upon the subject of the defendant’s reputation for loyalty to this government. The
But counsel argues that instruction 10' deals with the
The Espionage Act of June 15, 1917 (40 Stat. 217, Chap. 30),
The judgment and order are affirmed./
Affirmed.