Matter of Application of Foley

MELVIN, J.

Petitioner is held in custody by the chief of police of the city and county of San Francisco, having been arrested upon three criminal charges based upon the violations of certain provisions of chapter 615 of the statutes of California. (Stats. 1915, p. 1163.) The charges are (1) that petitioner offered for sale and had in his possession certain eggs theretofore shipped from the Dominion of Canada into the United States without having stamped or printed upon one end of each egg, in black-faced letters not less than one-eighth of an inch in height, the word “Imported”; (2) that he received certain eggs which had been produced in the Dominion of Canada and shipped into the United States, without making a report to the state board of health as provided by statute; and (3) that he sold and offered for sale at his place of business eggs imported from Canada, without

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displaying at said place a sign inscribed, “Imported Eggs Sold Here.”

Petitioner contends that the statute which he is accused of violating is unconstitutional and void, in that it imposes unreasonable restrictions upon him; that by and through it the legislature attempted to violate that part of the constitution of the United States which commits to Congress the exclusive power to regulate foreign commerce; that it imposes a burden equivalent to a tax upon articles which are the subject of foreign commerce, based solely upon their foreign quality, and unjustly discriminates in favor of the citizens of one state.

Respondent seeks to defend the statute upon the ground that it is a proper police measure intended for the protection of the public from the sale of stale and unwholesome eggs. If that be its purpose, the statute was very faultily drawn, because it does not'tend in any way to accomplish that end. It provided no method of inspection; no protection against the inferior quality of eggs placed on sale; and no requirement that the time of production, the method of shipment, or manner of attempted preservation of the eggs should be advertised. It merely enjoins upon the dealer in imported eggs the onerous and expensive duty of advertising elaborately the fact that they were not produced in the United States. Its only result would be not to protect the public from the sale of stale eggs, but to aid the domestic producer by appealing to the prejudices of people against eggs produced in foreign lands.