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."

Defined under License in Black's Law Dictionary.