United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Armour & Co. v. North Dakota, 240 U.S. 510 (1916)

Armour & Co. v. North Dakota

No. 258

Argued March 3, 6, 1916

Decided April 3, 1916

240 U.S. 510

Syllabus

The statute of North Dakota requiring lard when not sold in bulk to be put up in pails or other containers holding a specified number of pounds net weight or even multiples thereof and labeled as specified is not unconstitutional as denying equal protection of the law or a depriving the sellers of their property without due process of law; nor is it, as to packages sent into the state from other states and afterwards sold to consumers by retail, unconstitutional as an interference with, or burden on, interstate commerce.

The net weight lard statute of North Dakota is directed to the manner of selling lard at retail, and is not repugnant to the Food and Drugs Act of June 30, 1906, c. 3915, 34 Stat. 768, which is directed against adulteration and misbranding of articles of food transported in interstate commerce.

27 N.D. 177 affirmed.

The facts, which involve the constitutionality under the commerce, due process, and equal protection provisions of the federal Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment thereto of the full weight provisions of the statute of North Dakota, relative to the sale of lard in containers and their validity under the Food and Drugs Act, are stated in the opinion.

Page 240 U. S. 511