TaiLexi AI U.S. Case Law

Ex parte Miller

Ex parte FRANK MILLER, on Habeas Corpus

Ex parte Miller, 26 P. 620 (Cal. 1891)
Download
Format
Include

Star paging (*137) is kept for pin cites.

Court
California Supreme Court · State Highest Courts
Decided
May 6, 1891
Docket
No. 20843
Citations
26 P. 62089 Cal. 411891 Cal. LEXIS 765
Syllabus
Habeas Corpus — Reasonableness op Municipal Ordinance—Propane and Obscene Language. — If cases can be conceived of in which the extreme penalty imposed by a municipal ordinance for the offense of uttering profane and obscene language in the presence of other persons, having a tendency to create a breach of the peace, would not be unreasonable, the ordinance is not void, and the question whether the offense in any particular case is sufficient to justify such punishment is for the trial court to determine, and cannot be determined upon habeas corpus.
Summary
Application to the Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus. The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

Syllabus and headnotes are prepared by the reporter or publisher, not the court, and are not part of the opinion.

Opinion of the Court

Text extracted by OCR from a scanned original; check the original for exact wording.

The Court.

— The petitioner sets forth “ that he is held under a warrant of arrest issued by the police court of the city and county of San Francisco, upon a complaint charging him with uttering, etc., profane and obscene language, and words and language having a tendency to create a breach of the peace, in violation of section 28, order 1587, of the board of supervisors of said city and county of San Francisco,” and alleges as a reason for the issuance of the writ, “ that said ordinance is null and void, as the penalty imposed for its violation by section 1 thereof is a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both, which is unreasonable, and renders the ordinance void.”

We can conceive of many cases in which a fine of one thousand dollars and an imprisonment for the term of six months would not be an unreasonable punishment for the uttering of profane and obscene language in the presence of other persons. Whether the offense in any particular case is sufficient to justify such punishment must be determined by the court before whom the offense is tried.

The application for the writ is denied.

How later courts describe this case

No later court has written an explanatory parenthetical about this case yet.

1896: 11910: 11955: 118962026peak 1896 · 1

Relies on it most ⓘ

  1. In re Bartges282 P.2d 47 (Cal. 1955)
  2. Ex parte Haskell44 P. 725 (Cal. 1896)
  3. Hamaker v. Keating110 P. 109 (Cal. 1910)

Most recent

  1. In re Bartges282 P.2d 47 (Cal. 1955)
  2. Hamaker v. Keating110 P. 109 (Cal. 1910)
  3. Ex parte Haskell44 P. 725 (Cal. 1896)

Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.

Authorities cited 0

No citations to other opinions in this database were found.

Keyboard shortcuts

/Focus the search box
j kNext / previous result
EnterOpen the selected result
xAdd / remove the selected result from the download list
n pNext / previous search term in a case
cCopy the citation of the current case
+ −Larger / smaller reading text
?Show this list