Laundkies

See Chinese. A city ordinance which makes it an oflfense to keep a laundry wherein clothes are cleansed for hire, within the limits of the larger part of a city, without regard to the character of the structure or the appliances used for the purpose, or the manner in which the occupation is carried on, is unconstitutional.' To make an occupation, indispensable to the health and comfort of civilized man, and the use of the property necessary to carry it on, a nuisance, by an arbitrary declaration in a city ordinance, and suppress it as such, is to confiscate the property and to deprive its owner of it without due process of law. It also abridges the liberty of the owner to select his own occupation and methods in the pursuit of happiness, and thereby prevents him from enjoying his rights, privileges and immunities, and deprives him of the equal protection of the laws, secured to every person by the Constitution.' The ordinances of San Francisco giving the board of supervisors authority, in theii" discretion, to refuse ' 3 Bl. Com. 317-23; 4 id. 418. permission to carry on laundries, except when located in buildings of brick or stone, are unconstitutional.' So is an ordinance providing that permission shall be granted only upon recommendation of twelve citizens and taxpayers in the particular block.^ So is an ordinance which makes it an offense for any person to carry on a laundry for pay, within the habitable portion of the oity.^ But an ordinance prohibiting washing and ironing between certain hours of the night may be constitutional.^