Decision of The Court
This section requires expansion. |
In each case the United States Supreme Court held, by a closely divided 5:4 majority, a part, but not the whole, of the respective State statute to be unconstitutional. A federal constitutional principle known as "standing" precludes the giving of an advisory opinion, i.e., a pronouncement of a decision concerning a matter which goes beyond the facts and record of the particular case. Thus, parts of the respective statutes not implicated by the specific facts of the case are not supposed to be ruled upon until a case involving a contest over such matters is actually presented to the court.
In Smith vs. Turner that portion of the New York statute concerning the collection of a tax measured by the number of steerage-class passengers from ships arriving from a foreign port was declared unconstitutional.
In Norris vs. City of Boston that portion of the Massachusetts law imposing a tax measured by the number of alien passengers allowed to disembark without bond was struck down as unconstitutional.
Read more about this topic: Passenger Cases
Famous quotes containing the words decision and/or court:
“There are many things children accept as grown-up things over when they have no control and for which they have no responsibilityfor instance, weddings, having babies, buying houses, and driving cars. Parents who are separating really need to help their children put divorce on that grown-up list, so that children do not see themselves as the cause of their parents decision to live apart.”
—Fred Rogers (20th century)
“At court I met it, in clothes brave enough
To be a courtier, and looks grave enough
To seem a statesman.”
—Ben Jonson (15721637)