United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Daniel v. Family Security Life Ins. Co., 336 U.S. 220 (1949)

Daniel v. Family Security Life Insurance Co.

No. 297

Argued February 2, 1949

Decided February 28, 1949

336 U.S. 220

Syllabus

1. As applied in this case, a South Carolina statute forbidding life insurance companies and their agents to engage in the undertaking business and forbidding undertakers to serve as agents for life insurance companies does not contravene the Due Process or Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Pp. 336 U. S. 220-225.

2. That an "insurance lobby" may have secured the enactment of the statute has no bearing on its constitutionality. P. 336 U. S. 224.

3. It cannot be said that South Carolina is not entitled to call the funeral insurance business an evil, nor that the statute has no relation to such an evil. Pp. 336 U. S. 224-225.

79 F.Supp. 62, reversed.

A three-judge federal district court enjoined enforcement of a South Carolina statute forbidding a combination of the life insurance and undertaking businesses on the ground that it contravened the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. 79 F.Supp. 62. On direct appeal to this Court, reversed, p. 336 U. S. 225.