So long as it does not interfere with interstate commerce, a
state may restrict the manufacture of oleomargarine in a way that
does not hamper that of butter. The classification is reasonable,
and does not offend the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment.
Capital City Dairy Co. v. Ohio, 183 U.
S. 238.
A state may forbid the manufacture of oleomargarine altogether
without violating the due process or equal protection provisions of
the Fourteenth Amendment.
Powell v. Pennsylvania,
127 U. S. 678.
A state may express and carry out its policy in restricting and
forbidding the manufacture of articles either by police or by
revenue legislation.
Quong Wing v. Kirkendall,
223 U. S. 59.
45 Mon. 343 affirmed.
The facts, which involve the constitutionality under the due
process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of
a statute of Montana imposing a license tax on the carrying on of
the business of selling oleomargarine, are stated in the
opinion.
Page 233 U. S. 333
MR. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is an action to recover a license tax of one cent per pound
sold for carrying on the business of selling oleomargarin. The
answer, with some allegations not now material, admitted the facts
and set up that ยง 4064 of the Political Code of Montana, as
amended, by which the tax was imposed, violates the Fourteenth
Amendment. That is the only question raised here, so that other
incidental or preliminary matters need not be mentioned. Judgment
was entered for the state on the pleadings, and the judgment was
affirmed by the supreme court of the state.
The argument for the plaintiff in error is that, the tax being
pronounced or assumed by the state courts to be a tax for revenue,
it is unjustifiable to put oleomargarin in a class by itself and to
discriminate, for instance, between it and butter. But we see no
obstacle to doing so in the Constitution of the United States.
Apart from interference with commerce among the states, a state may
restrict the manufacture of oleomargarin in a way in which it does
not hamper that of butter.
Capital City Dairy Co. v. Ohio,
183 U. S. 238,
183 U. S.
245-246,. It even may forbid the manufacture altogether.
Powell v. Pennsylvania, 127 U. S. 678. It
may express and carry out its
Page 233 U. S. 334
policy as well in a revenue as in a police law.
Quong Wing
v. Kirkendall, 223 U. S. 59,
223 U. S. 62.
The case really has been disposed of by previous decisions of this
Court.
McCray v. United States, 195 U. S.
27,
195 U. S.
62-63.
Judgment affirmed.