Delamater v. South Dakota, 205 U.S. 93 (1907)

Delamater v. South Dakota

No. 149

Argued January 10, 11, 1907
Decided March 11, 1907
205 U.S. 93

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA

Syllabus

The general power of the states to control and regulate, within their borders, the business of dealing in, or soliciting orders for, the purchase of intoxicating liquors is beyond question.

The purpose of the Wilson Act, 26 Stat. 713, as a regulation of interstate commerce was to allow the states to exert ampler power as to intoxicating liquors when the subject of such commerce than could have been exercised before the enactment of that statute, which enabled the states to extend their authority as to such liquor shipped from other states before it became commingled with the mass of other property in the state by a sale in the original package.

Since the enactment of the Wilson Law, which expressly provides that intoxicating liquors coming into a state should be as completely under control of the state as though manufactured therein, the owner of intoxicating liquor in one state cannot, under the commerce clause of the Constitution, go himself or send his agent into another state and, in defiance of its laws, carry on the business of soliciting proposals for the purchase of such liquors.

Although a state may not forbid a resident therein from ordering for his own use intoxicating liquor from another state, it may forbid the carrying on within its borders of the business of soliciting orders for such liquor although such orders may only contemplate a contract resulting from final acceptance in another state. Vance v. W. A. Vandercook Co., 170 U.S. 438, distinguished.

The law of South Dakota imposing an annual license charge on traveling salesmen selling, offering for sale, or soliciting orders for intoxicating liquors in quantities of less than five gallons is not unconstitutional because repugnant to the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States.

The highest court of South Dakota having held that the act imposing a license on traveling salesmen soliciting orders for intoxicating liquors is a police regulation, and not a taxing act, it is within the purview of, and not in conflict with, the Wilson Act. Pabst Brewing Co. v. Crenshaw, 198 U.S. 17, followed.

104 N.W 539 affirmed.

The facts are stated in the opinion.