United States v. Gudger

Background

Virginia forbids the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages. A man traveling by train from Baltimore to Asheville, North Carolina, was stopped at the Lynchburg station in Virginia and found with about seven quarts of whisky in his valise. He said he intended to keep going to North Carolina and not to leave the train in Virginia. The man was indicted under a 1917 federal law that makes it illegal to transport liquor “into” a State that bars alcohol. The Government provided a bill of particulars and the defendant’s admissions for a motion to dismiss, and the trial court granted the motion.

Reasoning

The central question was whether the word “into” in the statute covered moving liquor through a State on the way to another State. The Court said it did not. The opinion explains that “into” naturally refers to the State of destination, not to a State merely passed through during travel. The Court rejected the argument that personal carriage should be treated differently from carriage by common carrier, saying that creating such a distinction would amount to rewriting the law rather than interpreting it. Because the act charged fell outside the statute’s proper meaning, the Court affirmed the dismissal.

Real world impact

The ruling narrows the reach of the 1917 law: moving alcohol through a dry State while en route to another State does not, by itself, violate this federal prohibition. Travelers who pass through a dry State without intending to leave there and common carriers cannot be prosecuted under this statute on that ground alone. The decision resolves the case before the Court by affirming the lower court’s dismissal.