Hugo Black

“ If it chooses, Congress may provide a rule of law which runs counter to the expressed dry policy of Oklahoma, and it may do so either specifically for Fort Sill or generally for all federal reservations. Congress has not done so. It has done the opposite. For more than a hundred years most of the rules of life on national reservations have been controlled by the laws of the States in which these reservations are located. ”

“ Not only that, it would for practical purposes be accepted as an authoritative determination that all army reservations in the State of Oklahoma must conduct their activities in accordance with numerous Oklahoma liquor regulations, some of which, at least, are of doubtful adaptability. And all of this would be decided in a case wherein neither the Army Officers nor the War Department nor the Attorney General of the United States have been represented, and upon a record consisting of stipulations between a private carrier and the legal representatives of Oklahoma. ”

“ No permit to transport liquor into Oklahoma can be obtained at all except for scientific, mechanical, medicinal, industrial, or sacramental purposes. Okl.Stat.1941, Title 37, § 42. To construe the state statute in the manner urged would be to say that, although Oklahoma admittedly has no power directly to regulate the liquor traffic on the Reservation, the Oklahoma legislature intended practically to exclude from the Reservation liquor which might be put to legal uses under controlling United States laws. ”

“ No such policy can be drawn from the Act of 1901-quite the opposite is implied. And assuming that the military could assert such a policy in the interest of Army morale, there is wholly lacking any manifestation that the Army deems it necessary for the morale of its officers that at Fort Sill conduct should be permitted which if committed in the surrounding territory of Oklahoma would offend its penal laws. So far as the War Department has indicated a policy, its policy like that of the Assimilative Crimes Statute is to adopt on military reservations the laws of their respective States. ”

“ Importation of liquors without a special permit is made penal. Ibid., §§ 41, 46. To hold, therefore, that the assimilative crimes statute adopts Oklahoma's penal liquor laws the Court might further have to hold that that statute compels federal officials on the Fort Sill Reservation to apply for and obtain state permits before they can lawfully import any liquors for any purpose. And a strong argument might be made that had Congress intended such a drastic result, it would have considered the problem and used more express language. ”

“ But where the relief sought is not as to something past and collateral, but where it is the very means, as is the case here, for completing an outlawed transaction, a court of equity should withhold its aid and not become the promoter of wrongdoing. The possible illegality of the seizure of the liquor by the Oklahoma enforcement officers is quite irrelevant to our problem. 'A question of public policy is presented-not a mere adjudication of adversary rights between the two parties.' Weil v. ”

“ Louis, Illinois, to the Fort Sill Military Reservation, was destined for the Officers Club at the Reservation for delivery to several hundred members of the Club on whose behalf its secretary was managing the importation of the liquor. Upon seizure the liquor was deposited in the County Court House of Oklahoma County, where it is held as an illegal shipment of intoxicating liquor subject to forfeiture and destruction. ”

“ Petitioners are officials of Oklahoma State and Oklahoma County concerned with enforcement of Oklahoma's liquor laws. Respondent is a common carrier by motor vehicle authorized by the Interstate Commerce Commission to transport in interstate commerce various commodities, including wines and liquors. ”

“ Therefore, before deciding the applicability of the maxim to the case at hand, we must examine the particular transactions and circumstances involved together with the federal laws which are alleged to taint these transactions with illegality. ”

“ See infra.↑ And see Webster, the sponsor of the bill in the Senate, in Register of Debates in Congress (Gales & Seaton, 1825) Vol. I, p. 338: 'As to the third section (the precursor of the present Assimilative Crimes Act) , it must be obvious, that, where the jurisdiction of a small place, containing only a few hundreds of people, (a navy yard for instance,) was ceded to the United States, some provision was required for the punishment of offences ”