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Show I SUPREME COURT DECISION. I Kills all Old City and Town Liquor I Ordinances. H Hf II . All city and town ordinances in Utah prohibiting -the salo of intoxicating liquors passed prior to May 9, 1911, are null and void, and no prosecutions can be maintained main-tained under them. Such -is the holding of the Supreme Court of the State in an opinion handed 6 down by that court on Thursday I of last week. May 9, 1911, is I tre date on which the last state liquor law, the one under which we had the "wet" and "dry" elections all over the state last June, went into effect. That law, Chapter 106, Laws of Utah, 1911, as it is called, repealing all such old ordinances. The opinion thus announcing the general law of Utah on this subject was written in a case appealed ap-pealed from Pleasant Grove, a dry city of Utah county, One John Lindsay, .after conviction in the justice court at Pleasant Grove of having there unlawfully sold beer carried his case to the district court at Provo and was w there on lAugust 16.1911, again reTconvictltvncLsentGncQd. - The ordinance under which he was convicted was passed Octqber 4, 1909. The district court at Provo I instructed the jury that that ordinance was subsisting and in full force and effect. Lindsay's counsel contended that the ordinance or-dinance had been repealed by Chapter 106, and appealed to the Supreme Court to haye that question determined. The last named court sustains this contention con-tention and orders the prosecution prosecu-tion against Lindsay dismissed. While the opinion, as stated above, holds that all old ordinanc- Ies are repealed by Chapter 106, it states tnat the validity of Chapter 106 is not assailed or questioned. The opinion therefore there-fore proceeds on the theory that it itself is a valid law. From a reading of the opinion it may be '( inferred that sellers of intoxicat ing liquors in dry communities can be prosecuted under the legislative act. In other words, that county attorneys can prosecute prose-cute in the name of the state where city or town attorneys cannot because of now being without legally existing ordinances. ordin-ances. It may bo inferred further from the opinion that wet cities and towns may pass new ordinances ordin-ances on the subject in harmony with the state law and thus enforce en-force their own "regulation" of the traffic; but nothing can be inferred in-ferred from the opinion that dry communities may do so and thus enforce their prohibition. The opinion says: "The question of the power of the cities and'towns of this state to prosecute offenders offend-ers under the act, or to what extent, ex-tent, if at all, such cities and towns may pass ordinances prohibiting pro-hibiting or regulating the traffic in intoxicating liquors and prosecute violators thereof is not now before us and we express no opinion with regard thereto." Some lawyers contend that Chapter 106 precludes dry towns from passing ordinances on this subject. In any event new ordinances or-dinances must bo in harmony with Chapter 106, and.tftejpiyak ties ana consequences prescribed by Chapetr 106. In that chapter there are penalties specified, especialy for second convictions, which are beyond the power of any justice court to inflict, which suggests another legal snag to be encountered. Besides, whether wheth-er the search and seizure and other provisions of the new law .are notvholly beyond' tlie jurisdiction juris-diction of justice and city courts is another seriously debated question yo to 6e1pass&dj)n by the court of last resort. All of which shows that the status of our liquor legislation is not yet as satisfactory as we1 would Jike to have it and leads the Record to suggest that a state convention conven-tion of dry town officers charged with-enacting ordniances, tp be advised by the best legal ability obtainable, and to get the ordinances ordin-ances on this vexed question uniform un-iform throughout the state, and to secure a' 'hearty, co-operation on some feasibteplzm -to properly enforce them would seem to be desirable and might redound in very much good right now. i ., m m |