License cases

The name given to the group of cases including Peirce v. New Hampshire, 5 How. 504 , 12 L. Ed. 256, decided by the United States supreme court in 1847, to the effect that state laws requiring a license or the payment of a tax for the privilege of selling intoxicating liquors were not in conflict with the constitutional provision giving to congress the power to regulate interstate commerce, even as applied to liquors -imported from another state and remaining in the original and unbroken packages. This decision was overruled in Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S. 100 , 10 Sup. Ct. 681, 34 I. Ed. 128, which in turn was counteracted by the act of congress of August 8, 1890, commonly calied the "Wilson law."