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285 U.S. 515

Callahan v. United States

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued March 14, 1932.

Decided April 11, 1932.

Supreme Court of the United States · decided 1932-04-11

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The word ‘merchandise’ means goods, wares, and chattels of every description, and includes merchandise the importation of which is prohibited.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Olais-Castro v. United States

Relies on City of Walla Walla v. Walla Walla Water Co · Kan-Gi-Shun-Ca · Cook Co Nat Bank v. United States

Cited in Case Law’s definition of “contrary to law” · Case Law’s definition of “merchandise”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · 9–0 · Decided 1932-04-11

How this case has been cited

Cited by 79 later decisions (12 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2019 · most notably Virginian Ry Co v. System Federation No 40 (1937), Massachusetts v. United States (1948)

42 federal appellate · 9 district · 4 state decisions

170193219401950196019701980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*516Mr. Louis Halle, with whom Mr. Milton R. Kroopj was on the brief, for petitioner.

¶2Assistant Attorney General Youngquist, with whom Solicitor General Thacker and Mr. John J. Byrne were on the brief, for the United States.

¶3Mr. Justice Roberts

¶4delivered the opinion of the Court.

¶5The petitioner was indicted under § 593 (b) of the Tariff Act of 1922,1 for aiding and abetting the importation of intoxicating liquors contrary to law, the specified illegality being violation of Title II, § 3, of the National Prohibition Act.2 In support of a demurrer he asserted *517the indictment set forth an offense under the prohibition act and failed to charge one under the cited section of the tariff act; and was duplicitous as including offenses under both statutes. The demurrer was overruled, trial and conviction followed, and petitioner was sentenced under § 593 (b). The circuit court of appeals affirmed the judgment, and this court granted certiorari.

¶6We are asked to hold that one who violates the prohibition act by importing liquor, may not be indicted, tried and sentenced under the tariff act, which makes the importation of any merchandise3 contrary to law ” a criminal offense. The phrase contrary to law ” as used in the later act is unqualified and taken in its natural meaning signifies “ contrary to any law,” and hence contrary to the earlier prohibition act, so that a violation of that act would be an offense within the other.

¶7The petitioner urges that the National Prohibition Act deals specifically with intoxicating liquor, prohibits its importation and provides a penalty therefor; whereas the tariff act is concerned with a wholly separate subject and the penal section 593 (b) aimed at unlawful importation should not be construed as repealing the earlier special statute. (Ex parte Crow Dog, 109 U. S. 556, 570; Rodgers v. United States, 185 U. S. 83, 87-89; Washington v. Miller, 235 U. S. 422, 428.) This argument overlooks the fact that the National Prohibition Act prescribes no special penalty for importation in violation of its provisions. Section 29 of Title II, an omnibus section fixing penalties for violations for which no special penalty is *518prescribed, is the only one under which punishment could be imposed for illegal importation.4 The language used is sufficiently broad to include specific penalties fixed in other sections of the statute and also such as might be imposed by separate legislation. The tariff act, a later statute, fixes a definite penalty for one of the violations grouped in the penal section of the earlier act. In this respect it superseded the general provisions of the prior statute embracing the same subject. Cook County National Bank v. United States, 107 U. S. 445; Walla Walla v. Walla Walla Water Co., 172 U. S. 1, 22. The indictment charged an offense under the Tariff Act and the judgment must be affirmed.5

¶8Affirmed.

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