MCKINLEY ET AL.
v.
UNITED STATES
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McKinley and others were convicted in federal court for operating a house of prostitution within five miles of a military station in violation of a regulation issued by the Secretary of War under the Espionage Act of 1917. The Supreme Court affirmed the convictions, holding that Congress has constitutional authority under its power to raise and support armies to prohibit brothels near military installations and to delegate the implementation of such restrictions to executive departments.
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Memorandum opinion by direction of the court, by
Mr. Justice Day.
Plaintiffs in error were indicted, convicted, and sentenced upon an indictment in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Georgia for violation of a regulation of the Secretary of War made under the authority of the Act of Congress of May 18, 1917, c. 15, § 13, 40 Stat. 76, 83. This statute provides:
"The Secretary of War is hereby authorized, empowered, and directed during the present war to do everything by him deemed necessary to suppress and prevent the keeping or setting up of houses of ill fame, brothels, or bawdy houses within such distance as he may deem needful of any military camp, station, fort, post, cantonment, training, or mobilization place, and any person, corporation, partnership, or association receiving or permitting to be received for immoral purposes any person into any place, structure, or building used for the purpose of lewdness, assignation,' or prostitution within such distance of said places as may be designated, or shall permit any such person to remain for immoral purposes in any such place, structure, or building as aforesaid, or who shall violate any order, rule, or-regulation issued to carry out the object and purpose of this section shall, unless otherwise punishable under the Articles of War, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000, or imprisonment for not more than twelve months, or both.”
Plaintiffs in error contend that Congress has no constitutional authority to pass this act. The indictment charged that the plaintiffs in error did unlawfully *keep and set up a house of ill fame within the distance designated by the Secretary of War, under the authority of the act of Congress, to-wit, within five miles of a certain military station of the United States. That Congress has the authority to raise and support armies and to make rules and regulations for the protection of the health and welfare of those composing them, is too well settled to require more than the statement of the proposition. Selective Draft Law Cases, 245 U. S. 366.
Congress having adopted restrictions designed to guard and promote the health and efficiency of the men com-|)0sing the army, in a matter so obvious as that embodied ih'the statute under consideration, may leave details to the regulation of the head of an executive department, and punish those who violate the restrictions. This is also well settled by the repeated decisions of this court. Buttfield v. Stranahan, 192 U. S. 470; Union Bridge Co. v. United States, 204 U. S. 364; United States v. Grimaud, 220 U. S. 506.
The judgment of the District Court is
Affirmed.
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Cited By (22 total)
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The Int'l Ass'n of MacHinists v. State, 153 Fla. 672 (Fla. 1943)…ense, including the protection from injury and from the dangers which attend the> risk', prosecution and progress of war. 11 Wall 268, 303-314; Stewart v. Kahn, 1 Wall. 493, 506-7; Selective Draft Law Cases, 245 U. S. 366; McKinley v. United States, 249 U. S. 397; United States v. McIntosh, 283 U. S. 605, 622-623.” The National War Labor Board was created by executive order January 12, 1942, for the purpose of procuring an uninterrupted prosecution of the war on the part of labor and industry. This Board wa…
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Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U.S. 81 (U.S. 1943)…d from the dangers which attend the rise, prosecution and progress of war. Prize Cases, supra; Miller v. United States, 11 Wall. 268, 303-14; Stewart v. Kahn, 11 Wall. 493, 506-07; Selective Draft Law Cases, 245 U. S. 366; McKinley v. United States, 249 U. S. 397; United States v. Macintosh, 283 U. S. 605, 622-23. Since the Constitution commits to the Executive and to Congress the exercise of' the war power in all the vicissitudes and conditions of warfare, it has necessarily given them wide scope for the ex…
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Pierce v. Soc'y of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (U.S. 1925)
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- United States v. Grimaud, 220 U.S. 506 (U.S. 1911)
- Selective Draft Law Cases, 245 U.S. 366 (U.S. 1918)
- Buttfield v. Stranahan, 192 U.S. 470 (U.S. 1904)
- Union Bridge Co. v. United States, 204 U.S. 364 (U.S. 1907)