United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Louis K. Liggett Co. v. Baldridge, 278 U.S. 105 (1928)

Louis K. Liggett Co. v. Baldridge

No. 34

Argued October 8, 1928

Decided November 19, 1928

278 U.S. 105

Syllabus

1. The business of a foreign corporation is property, and the corporation a "person," within the meaning of the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. P. 278 U. S. 111.

2. A foreign corporation may not be subjected to statutes that are in conflict with the federal Constitution by a state in which it has been permitted to do business. Id.

Page 278 U. S. 106

3. A state statute forbidding any corporation to own a pharmacy or drugstore in addition to those owned at the time of the enactment, unless all of its stockholders are licensed pharmacists, violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as applied to a foreign corporation which owned such store under license of the state, and sought to extend its business by acquiring and operating others. P. 278 U. S. 111.

4. Mere stock ownership in a corporation owning and operating a drugstore can have no real or substantial relation to the public health. P. 278 U. S. 113.

5. That the stock of corporations owning and operating chain drugstore is bought and sold on the stock exchanges and must be largely held by person who are not registered pharmacists are facts that may be judicially noticed. Id.

22 F.2d 993 reversed.

Appeal from a decree of the district court, composed of three judges, dismissing the bill whereby appellant drugstore company sought to enjoin the Attorney General and other officers of Pennsylvania, from prosecuting it under an act regulating the ownership of drugstores. The court had previously denied an application for a preliminary injunction.

Page 278 U. S. 108