Sperry & Hutchinson Co. v. Rhodes
Sperry & Hutchinson Co. v. Rhodes
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an action brought by the defendant in error for
The Court of Appeals held that the statute applied only to photographs taken after it went into effect, as was the photograph of the plaintiff that the defendant used. The property was brought into existence under a law that limited the uses to be made of it, and, if otherwise there could have been any question, in such a case there is none. Some comment was made in argument on the distinction between photographs taken before and after the date in 1903 as inconsistent with the Fourteenth Amendment. But the Fourteenth Amendment does not forbid statutes and statutory changes to have a beginning and thus to discriminate between the rights of an earlier and later time.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- SPERRY AND HUTCHINSON COMPANY v. RHODES
- Cited By
- 118 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Thé Fourteenth Amendment does not forbid statutes and statutory-changes to have a beginning and thus to discriminate between rights of an earlier and later time. In a statute relating to the use of photographs, the fact that it applies only to those taken after the enactment does not render it unconstitutional as denying the equal protection of the law because it does not relate to those taken prior to such enactment. Where property is not brought into existence until after a statute is passed, the owner is not deprived of his property without due process of law on account of limitations thereon imposed by such statute. The Court of Appeals of that State having construed the statute of New York of 1903 limiting the use of photographs of persons to photographs taken after the statute went into effect, the statute is not unconstitutional as denying one owning photographs taken thereafter, of his property without due process of law, or as denying equal protection of the law. Judgment entered on authority of 193 ’N. Y. 223, affirmed.