In Re Hart

WORKS, J.,

pro

term.

The petitioner operates a mercantile business at an establishment within the city of Santa Monica and sells his commodities in the contiguous city of Venice, sales and deliveries being made by him after the manner which is employed by dealers in articles of the same character, which dealers have their places of business located within the limits of Venice. An ordinance of the last-named city provides for the licensing of certain businesses and contains a section to the following effect: “For every person . . . selling or contracting to sell articles” of various kinds, including the' commodities dealt in by the petitioner, “to persons not regularly engaged in carrying on such lines of business, whether by sample or otherwise, . . . not otherwise provided for herein, $60.00 per annum; provided that this shall not apply to persons having regularly licensed places of business, in the city of Venice, taking orders for or sell

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ing, goods handled hy them in their respective business.” The petitioner was arrested and is imprisoned for making sales within Venice, without having taken out the license required by the section, it being conceded that his case is “not otherwise provided for” in the ordinance. It appears that persons whose places of business are within the boundaries of Venice and who conduct establishments similar to that of the petitioner, pay a license fee of only twelve dollars per annum under the ordinance.

The petitioner contends that the ordinance unjustly discriminates against him, in that it requires from him a license fee of sixty dollars per year, while it exacts but twelve dollars per year from others similarly situated, except that his place of business is without, while theirs are within, the city of Venice. He points to section 21 of article I of the constitution of California, providing that no “citizen, or class of citizens,” shall “be granted privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not be granted to all citizens”; and to the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, section 1, to the effect that “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”