William R. Day

“ Such game may be legally imported during the open season, and held and possessed within the state of New York. It may be legally held in the closed season upon giving bond, as provided by the statute against its sale. Incidentally, these provisions may affect the right of one importing game to hold and dispose of it in the closed season, but the effect is only incidental. The purpose of the law is not to regulate interstate commerce, but, by laws alike applicable to foreign and domestic game, to protect the people of the state in the right to use and enjoy the game of the state. ”

“ The right to preserve game flows from the undoubted existence in the state of a police power to that end, which may be none the less efficiently called into play because by doing so interstate commerce may be remotely and indirectly affected. ”

“ Section 119 of the law makes a violation of its provisions a misdemeanor, and subjects the offending parties to a fine.
The relator, a dealer in imported game, was arrested for unlawfully having in his possession, on the 30th of March, 1905, being within the closed season, in the borough of Brooklyn, city of New York, one dead body of a bird known as the golden plover, and one dead body of an imported grouse, known in England as blackcock, and taken in Russia. ”