Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 19.pdf/585

 THE GREEN BAG

550

NOTES

OF

THE

MOST

IMPORTANT

RECENT

CASES

COMPILED BY THE EDITORS OF THE NATIONAL REPORTER

SYSTEM

AND

ANNOTATED

BY

SPECIALISTS IN THE SEVERAL SUBJECTS (Copies of the pamphlet Reporter! containing full reports of any of these decisions may be secured from the West Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, at 35 cents each. In ordering, the title of the desired case should be given as well as the citation of volume and page of the Reporter in which it is printed.) CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. (Automobiles.) Mo. — The constitutionality of a law regulating the operation and speed of automobiles on public ways, fixing the amount of license and prescribing the penalty for violating the same, was questioned in State v. Swagerty, 102 S. W. 483, on the ground that it was a special law because it was applicable only to automobiles and did not apply to all vehicles using the public ways of the state. The court, however, was of the opinion that as the law applies to and affects alike all parties of the same class, that is, every one using automobiles on the public roads or ways of the state, it does not refer to particular persons or things of the class, and is, therefore, a general and not a special law. Fur thermore, it is a police regulation and its passage was clearly within the power of the legislature. As a case supporting its decision the court cites Christy v. Elliott, 216 Ill. 31, 74 N. E. 103s, 1 L. R. A. (N. S.); 215 108 Am St. Rep. 196. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. (Elections— Laches.) Ky. — In the recent case of Ragland v. Anderson, 100 S. W. 865, which involved the validity of a law apportioning the state into representative dis tricts, the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, in answer to a contention that if the act involved should be declared unconstitutional it would also follow that an earlier act must also be declared unconsti tutional because it created unequal representative districts, though in a less degree than the later act, said that as the earlier act had gone into effect and the government had been organized there under, it would now be too late to question its validity, since to hold it void would be to throw the government into chaos. Such a thing no court is required to do. The doctrine thus indi cated receives full support in the late case of Adams v. Bosworth, 102 S. W. 861. In this case it was sought to have declared invalid a law of 1893, apportioning the state into senatorial dis tricts, but as the apportionment made by the law has been accepted without question by the people of the entire state for a period of thirteen years,

the court considers that if there was no other reason for now refusing to disturb it, this long acquiescence would be sufficient. Persons who believe that their political rights are injuriously affected by unconstitutional legislation cannot condone the wrong for a long period of years by passively consenting to it, and defer taking action until confusion, if not chaos, would result from the long delay. When it is sought to vacate enactments involving the life of one of the great co-ordinate departments of the government, the public interest and the orderly administration of affairs demand that action should be taken as soon as practicable after the condition objected to becomes known and effective. It may be true, the court concedes, that laches cannot give validity to a void act, but the court maintains that when no property right is involved, and the question is purely political and administrative, individuals or parties that have seen the act in operation for years, and the affairs of state carried on under it, without offering objection or making protest, will not be heard at a late date to question its validity. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. (Federal Employers' Liability Act.) U. S. C. C — The constitutionality of the Federal Employers' Liability Act, Act Cong. June 11, 1906, c. 3073, 34 Stat. 232, has been questioned in several cases up to date. In the earlier cases the courts seemed to be of the opinion that the act was unconstitutional. Thus in Brooks v. Southern Pacific Co.. 148 Fed. 986, decided Dec. 31, 1906, by Judge Evans in the Circuit Court for the Western District of Kentucky, and in Howard v. Illinois Cent. R. Co., 148 Fed. 997, decided Jan. 1, 1907, by Judge McCall in the Circuit Court for the Western District of Tennes see, the act was held unconstitutional and void as not being within the constitutional power of congress to regulate commerce. But in later cases the constitutionality of the act has been upheld. Such cases are Spain v. St. Louis & S F. R. Co., 151 Fed. 522, decided March 13, this year, by Trieber in the Circuit Court for the East