Stewart v. Michigan

Background

David J. Stewart, a Chicago merchant who solicited orders in Berrien County, Michigan, was charged under a Michigan law that required a license for anyone who traveled to sell goods or take orders. Stewart mailed duplicate orders to his Chicago store; goods were shipped in carload lots consigned to him at St. Joseph and delivered to customers by draymen. He was convicted after a jury trial, retried and convicted again in the county court, and the Michigan Supreme Court affirmed that conviction.

Reasoning

The central question was whether the state law could be applied to conduct that was part of interstate commerce. The trial court had instructed the jury that no sale occurred until delivery from the car and treated the car as the defendant’s local place of business, making him a hawker or peddler. The opinion explains that this view conflicted with prior decisions about interstate commerce and that the prosecution’s case rested on orders solicited and filled by shipments from Chicago. Because the conviction relied on that federal-commerce issue, and the alternate state-ground argument could not fairly sustain the verdict, the Court held the conviction could not stand.

Real world impact

The Court reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with its opinion. The decision protects out-of-state sellers who take orders in one state for goods shipped from another from criminal liability under a state peddler-license law, and it requires lower courts to avoid treating interstate shipments as mere local sales when applying such statutes.