The Federal Strike Against Washington's Anti-Cigarette Law
A federal judge declares Washington's prohibition on cigarette sales unconstitutional, setting up a fight between state and federal authority.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Judge Hanford, of the United States circuit court, yesterday rendered a decision declaring the anti-cigarette law unconstitutional. In his decision the court says: 'The said law of the state of Washington, prohibiting the sale of cigarettes and referred to in the petition, is in contravention of article 1 of section 8 of the constitution of the United States and null and void in so far as it prohibits or attempts to prohibit the selling, giving or furnishing to any one by the importer of, etc.' The decision is made on eight writs of habeas corpus, issued June 13, calling for the production by Sheriff Norton, of Clarke county, of the body of M. L. Coovert, of Vancouver, who was held under a commitment of the superior court of that county by which he was imprisoned for violation of the anti-cigarette law. Coovert's attorneys held that the cigarettes were sold in original packages.
“The said law of the state of Washington, prohibiting the sale of cigarettes... is in contravention of article 1 of section 8 of the constitution of the United States.”
This 1893 legal clash over 'original packages' and cigarette sales highlights the era's aggressive moral legislation—a precursor to the later full prohibition movement—and the way federal courts often acted as a check on local attempts to regulate vice.
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