34 App. D.C. 592 | D.C. Cir. | 1910
delivered the opinion of the Court:
Many grounds are assigned in the motion in support of this contention, but we think the consideration of one will be sufficient to dispose of this casa It is insisted that the language of the act defining the offenses which it is intended to create is so general, uncertain, and indefinite that it cannot, in itself, constitute such a rule of conduct or law as can be enforced until amplified by specific rules, orders, and regulations of the Interstate Commerce Commission, promulgated under the authority vested in the Commission by the act of Congress in question.
The Interstate Commerce Commission, it is conceded, has made no rules or regulations relative to the matters complained of in the information before us. The specific offense which the prosecution here attempts to fasten upon the railroad company is that it unlawfully failed to operate sufficient cars on its line of road to give passage to persons desiring to ride thereon, without crowding the same. It will be observed that the principal charge is the insufficient number of cars, to be determined from the fact of whether or not the cars are overcrowded. Hence, there cannot be said to be insufficient cars until those in use have become overcrowded. The whole inquiry, therefore, resolves itself into the question as to what •constitutes, under the statute, an overcrowded car.
The 6th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, among other things, provides that in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall “be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation.” In other words, when the accused is led to the bar of justice, the information or indictment must con
In the case of Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Com. 99 Ky. 132, 33 L.R.A. 209, 59 Am. St. Rep. 457, 35 S. W. 129, the court was considering the validity of an act which provided that the railroad company should not charge more than a reasonable or just rate of fare for the transportation of passengers. The act did not say what should be the rate, but simply required that the rate should be just and reasonable. The court, in holding the law unconstitutional and void by reason of its uncertainty, said: “That this statute leaves uncertain what shall be deemed a ‘just and reasonable rate of toll or compensation’ cannot be denied, and that different juries might reach different conclu
This court, in the case of Czarra v. Medical Supers. 25 App. D. C. 443, construing a statute which provided that any licentiate of the board was subject to have his license revoked upon being found guilty of unprofessional or dishonorable conduct, said: “The single question to be determined is whether, independently of the causes mentioned, ‘unprofessional or dishonorable conduct,’ as declared in the act, are sufficiently specific and certain to warrant a conviction thereof and the exercise of the power of revocation by the board of medical supervisors. * * * In all criminal prosecutions the right of the accused
In a criminal statute, the elements constituting the offense must be so clearly stated and defined as to reasonably admit of but one construction. Otherwise, there would be lack of uniformity in its enforcement. . The dividing line between what is lawful and unlawful cannot be left to conjecture. The citizen cannot be held to answer charges based upon penal statutes. whose mandates are so uncertain that they will reasonably admit of different constructions. A criminal statute cannot ■ rest upon an uncertain foundation. The crime, and the elements constituting it, must be so clearly expressed that the ordinary person can intelligently choose, in advance, what course it is lawful for him to pursue. Penal statutes prohibit-: ing the doing of certain things, and providing a punishment ■ for their violation, should not admit of such a double meaning that the citizen may act upon the one conception of its requirements and the courts upon another. As was said in United States v. Reese, 92 U. S. 214, 23 L. ed. 563: “If the legislature undertakes to define by statute a new offense, and provide for its punishment, it should express its will in language that
Penalties cannot be inflicted at the discretion of a jury. Before the citizen can be deprived of his liberty, or a corporation of its property by the imposition of fines, the crime must be clearly defined by the law-making power. If the Congress has power to declare it a crime for the street railway companies in the District of Columbia to operate cars in a crowded condition, it must, in order to impart validity to the law, declare, with certainty, what constitutes, under the statute, a crowded car. This it has totally failed to do.
It is unnecessary for us to consider in this case the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission to supply, by rule or regulation, what the statute lacks. No such attempt has been made; hence the question is not before us. The judgment of the police justice sustaining the motion to quash the information is affirmed, and it is so ordered. ' Affirmed.