United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Rast v. Van Deman & Lewis Co., 240 U.S. 342 (1916)

Rast v. Van Deman & Lewis Company

No. 41

Argued October 29, November 1, 2, 1915

Decided March 6, 1916

240 U.S. 342

APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

Syllabus

In a suit brought to restrain the enforcement of the statute of Florida of 1913 imposing special license taxes on merchants using profit sharing coupons and trading stamps on the ground that it violates the contract and the commerce clauses of, and the due process and equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to, the federal Constitution, and in which the district court, under Judicial Code § 226, granted a preliminary injunction holding that the statute violated the Fourteenth Amendment without stating on which provision it rested its decision or determining whether the statute violated other provisions of the Constitution, this Court, on appeal from the order of injunction reversed, and remanded with instructions to dismiss the bill, as the statute does not offend any constitutional provisions under consideration, and held that:

As the bill shows that the conditions of complainant's business and property engaged therein are such that enforcement of the statute would produce irreparable injury, it furnishes ground for equitable relief.