FENNER ET AL.
v.
BOYKIN ET AL.

U.S. | 1926-05-24
No. 308
271 U.S. 240 Supreme Court of the United States (1926) Negative Treatment
Also reported at: 70 L. Ed. 927 · 46 S. Ct. 492 · SCDB 1925-121 · 1926 U.S. LEXIS 622
Cited by 282 cases

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Synopsis

Appellants, non-Georgia citizens operating a cotton futures trading office in Georgia, challenged the constitutionality of a 1906 Georgia statute prohibiting agreements for future commodity delivery, claiming it violated interstate commerce protections. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's refusal to enjoin state prosecution, holding that federal courts should not interfere with state criminal proceedings except in extraordinary circumstances where constitutional rights face irreparable harm, and that defendants must ordinarily raise constitutional defenses in state court first rather than seeking federal injunctive relief.

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Opinion of the Court
Mr. Justice McReynolds

Mr. Justice McReynolds delivered the opinion of the Court.

This, appeal is without merit, and the interlocutory decree below must be affirmed.

'By an Act approved August 20, 1906, the Legislature .of Georgia declared unlawful certain agreements for the purchase or for future delivery, of designated commodities, and-lnade participation therein a misdemeanor. It also prohibited maintenance of an office where such agreements are offered, and specified what should constitute prima facie evidence of guilty connection therewith. Laws 1906, p. 95.

. Appellees, Boykin and Lowry, are the Solicitor General and Sheriff of Fulton County, Georgia, charged respectively with the. general duty of prosecuting and arresting • offenders. Subsequent to the passage of the Act of 1906, appellants, citizens of States other than Georgia, established in Fulton. County a branch office, with the ordinary quotation board, where they solicited and received orders, accompanied by margins, to purchase or sell cotton for future delivery on-the New York and New Orleans exchanges. ' They were threatened with arrest and prosecution for violating the Act of 1906. By a bill in the Unitéd States District, Court for the Northern District of Georgia they challenged the'validity of that statute, upon the ground that it interfered with the free flow of commerce .between the States. They alleged that the threatened action would deprive them of rights guar-, anteed by the federal Constitution, and asked that appellees be enjoined from proceeding therewith.

The District Court, three judges sitting, having heard the matter, concluded that the statute condemned gambling transactigns only, did not affect interstate commerce, and that the proposed proceedings against appellants would not deprive them of any right. The request for preliminary injunction was accordingly refused, and this appeal followed. 3 Fed. (2d) 674.

‘ The trial court discovered no necessity - for the relief asked. The record discloses no adequate reason for a different conclusion here. There was no abuse of discretion.

Ex parte Young, 209 U. S. 123, and following cases, have established; the doctrine that when absolutely necessary for protection of constitutional rights courts of the United States" have power to enjoin state officers from instituting criminal actions. But this may not ,be done .except under extraordinary circumstances where-the danger of irreparable loss is both great and immediate.. Ordinarily, there should be no interference with such officers; primarily, they are charged with the duty of prosecuting offenders against the laws of the State and must decide when and how this is to be done. The accused should first set up and rely upon his defense in the state courts, even though this involves a challenge of the validity of some statute,' unless it plainly appears that this course would '.not afford adequate protection. The Judicial Code provides ample opportunity for ultimate review here in respect of federal questions. An intolerable, condition would arise if, whenever about to be charged with violating a state law, one were permitted freely to contest its validity by an original proceeding in some federal court. Hygrade Provision Co. v. Sherman, 266 U. S. 497, 500.

Affirmed.

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Citator

Cited By (83 total)

  • Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (U.S. 1971)
    …the reasons why it has been perfectly natural for our cases to repeat time and time again that the normal thing to do when, federal courts are asked to enjoin pending proceedings in state courts is not to issue such injunctions. In Fenner v. Boykin, 271 U. S. 240 (1926), suit had been brought in the Federal District Court seeking to enjoin state prosecutions under a recently enacted state law that allegedly interfered with the free flow of interstate commerce. The Court, in a unanimous opinion made clear tha…
  • R.R. Comm'n of Tex. v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496 (U.S. 1941)
    …n, 289 U. S. 352. New public interests have a higher claim upon the discretion of a federal chancellor than the avoidance of needless friction with state policies, whether the policy relates to the enforcement of the criminal law, Fenner v. Boykin, 271 U. S. 240; Spielman Motor Co. v. Dodge, 295 U. S. 89; or the administration of a specialized scheme for liquidating embarrassed business enterprises, Pennsylvania v. Williams, 294 U. S. 176; or the final authority of a state court to interpret doubtful regula…
  • O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488 (U.S. 1974)
    …against the issuance of injunctions against state officers engaged in the administration of the State’s criminal laws in the absence of a showing of irreparable injury which is “ Toth great and immediate.’ ” Id., at 46. See, e.g., Fenner v. Boykin, 271 U. S. 240 (1926); Douglas v. City of Jeannette, 319 U. S. 157 (1943). In holding that 42 U. S. C. § 1983 is an Act of Congress that falls within the “expressly authorized” exception to the absolute bar against federal injunctions directed at state court proc…

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