Barrett v. State, 229 U.S. 26 (1913)
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General SummaryThis case is from a collection containing the full text of over 16,000 Supreme Court cases from 1793 to the present. The body of Supreme Court decisions are, effectively, the final interpretation of the Constitution. Only an amendment to the Constitution can permanently overturn an interpretation and this has happened only four times in American history.
Barrett v. State, 229 U.S. 26 (1913)
Barrett v. State No. 245 Submitted April 18, 1913 Decided May 26, 1913 229 U.S. 26
ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT
OF THE STATE OF INDIANA
Syllabus
Coal mining is a dangerous business and subject to police regulation by the state.
The legislature of the state is itself the judge of means necessary to secure the safety of those engaged in a dangerous business, and only such regulations as are palpably arbitrary can be set aside as violating the due process provision of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The equal protection provision of the Fourteenth Amendment requires laws of like application to all similarly situated, but the legislature is allowed wide discretion in the selection of classes.
A classification, in a police statute regulating operations in coal mines including bituminous coal mine and excluding block coal mines, is not so unreasonable or arbitrary as to justify the courts in overruling the legislature.
It is the province of the legislature to make the laws and of the court to enforce them.
Courts will not interfere with a police statute on the ground that the classification is so arbitrary as to deny equal protection of the laws unless it appears that there is no fair reason for the law that would with equal force not require its extension to others whom it leaves untouched. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Ry. v. May, 194 U.S. 267.
The statute of Indiana requiring entries in coal mines to be of a specified width was a reasonable exercise of the police power of the state in regulating a dangerous business and is not unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment either as depriving the owner of bituminous coal mines of their property without due process of law or a denying them equal protection of the law because it expressly excepts block coal mines.
174 Ind. 112 affirmed.
The facts, which involve the constitutionality under the Fourteenth Amendment of the statute of Indiana prescribing the width of entries in bituminous coal mines, are stated in the opinion.
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Chicago: U.S. Supreme Court, "Syllabus," Barrett v. State, 229 U.S. 26 (1913) in 229 U.S. 26 229 U.S. 27. Original Sources, accessed November 24, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=S698SD6Q8KJ7PXY.
MLA: U.S. Supreme Court. "Syllabus." Barrett v. State, 229 U.S. 26 (1913), in 229 U.S. 26, page 229 U.S. 27. Original Sources. 24 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=S698SD6Q8KJ7PXY.
Harvard: U.S. Supreme Court, 'Syllabus' in Barrett v. State, 229 U.S. 26 (1913). cited in 1913, 229 U.S. 26, pp.229 U.S. 27. Original Sources, retrieved 24 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=S698SD6Q8KJ7PXY.
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