POLICE POWER AND INTER-STATE COMMERCE, 221 THE POLICE POWER AND INTER-STATE COMMERCE. rpHE attention of the public has recently been attracted to the -*- question of the relation of the police power to inter-state commerce by the so-called "original package" decision rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States in April last.^ The majority of the Court there decided that a State law prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors, except for specified purposes, is void as to liquors imported from another State and sold by the importer in the original package. Two points of law are compre- hended in this decision : — 1. An article imported from another State is within the domain of inter-state commerce until the original package is broken or sold by the importer. 2. Prohibitory liquor legislation is void so far as it applies to articles within the domain of inter-state commerce. The first point involved, although never before adjudicated, falls within the principle of Brown v. Maryland,^ where a similar decision was made as to the duration of foreign commerce. The application of that principle to inter-state commerce has been ex- pected, and needs no comment here. The second point decided imposes an unexpected limitation upon the exercise of the State police power, and the matter deserves a careful examination. The decision has not ceased to be of practical importance by reason of the recent legislation by Congress upon the subject,^ for two reasons : first, it is held that the act is not retroactive, and gives no validity to legislation upon the statute books of the several
- Leisy x Hardin, 135 U. S. 100. ' 12 Wheat. 419.
- " All fermented, distilled, or other intoxicating liquors or liquids, transported into
any State or Territory for use, consumption, sale, or storage, shall, on arrival in such State or Territory , be subj ect to the operation and effect of the laws of such State or Terri- tory, enacted in the exercise of its police powers, to the same extent and in the same manner as though such liquors or liquids had been produced in such State or Territory, and shall not be exempt therefrom by reason of being introduced in original packages or otherwise."
