58 Iowa 496 | Iowa | 1882
It is contended by counsel for appellant that section 1555 of the Code, upon which the instructions of the court are based,
The argument is, that this statute is void because it prohibits the sale of wine made from fruits grown outside of this State and permits the sale of wine made from fruits grown within this State, and thereby discriminates against the products of other States.
The act for the suppression of intemperance, which was passed by the General Assembly of this State in 1855, and which in its general features has been in force from that time to the present, was declared to be a valid enactment in the case of Santo v. The State, 2 Iowa, 165. It is true that this provision of the law was not involved in that case, but it has' been in force as part of the prohibitory liquor laws since the year 1858, and has been enforced and approved in many cases, both civil and criminal, in the courts of this State. After so long a period, and after the statute in question has been so frequently enforced and its provisions so often applied in the regulation of the conduct of the inhabitants of the State, the familiar rule that a statute will not be held to be void as repugnant to the Constitution either of the State or of the United States, unless its unconstitutioriality is so obvious as to admit of no doubt, comes to us in all its force.
The constitutionality of laws regulating and prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors, has been so often upheld by the courts of last resort in this country, both State and Federal, that we need not stop here to cite the cases. Laws of this character are regarded as police regulations, established by the legislature for the prevention of intemperance, pauperism and crime, and for the abatement of nuisances, and are not thought to be in any just sense a regulation of commerce.
It is very clear that if the regulation or prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors is a police power, which may be exercised by the State and without interfering with the prerogative of Congress to regulate commerce among the States, the act in question is not repugnant to article I, section 8 of the Federal Constitution. Counsel for appellant cites Ward v. Maryland, 12 Wal., 418; Welton v. Missouri, 91 U. S., 275, and other cases in the same court, which hold that a license tax cannot be laid upon the sale of the products of other States while the same products within the State are exempted. These cases are founded upon a different principle. They treat of regulations of commerce- proper, and not with mere police regulations.
We think it is plain that the section of the statute under consideration is not repugnant to article IY, section 2 of the Federal Constitution.
Affirmed.