Illegal gain

“ It may even be profitable for him to do so, for the fines for doing some illegal acts by which money can be made are in some cases less than the profits to be made by transgressing the law. It is a queer condition of affairs. ”

“ We must construe the act, therefore, as covering with its penal prohibition the whole range of devices by which illegitimate currency is imposed on the community. It prohibits the use of such currency during the whole period of the establishment of an illegal company, and applied as completely to the last as to the first step of its operations. ”

“ Anyone carrying a flask would be considered, in the eyes of this law, a bootlegger, a purveyor of illegal goods—in fact, a criminal even though no evidence had been produced to prove him121 so. In our anxiety to purify the nation, we have distorted old established laws, turned reasoning topsy-turvy, and once more made ourselves ridiculous—in the Empire State at least. ”

“ The country contends that the law is unconstitutional; and these plaintiffs contend the same thing; and the law being void, then the money which has been accumulated as result of enforcement of this void law, is assailed by these plaintiffs because the cotton from which this money came was raised and produced and manufactured for market purposes by these plaintiffs, and they did this labor under duress and force, by an illegal system, and all the fruit which they see of this unpaid-for labor, is this money which is fruit of that labor ”

“ If the means employed have no real substantial relation to public objects which government may legally accomplish,-if they are arbitrary and unreasonable, beyond the necessities of the case,-the judiciary will disregard mere forms, and interfere for the protection of rights injuriously affected by such illegal action. ”

“ For it is well settled that a feature of an illegal restraint of trade, which is innocent by itself and which may be lawfully used if independently established, may be uprooted along with the other parts of an illegal arrangement. ”

“ If they are used in violation of an already-existing, clear requirement of the law which pronounces as the penalty for violation confiscation of the assets, and if the violation is established in a proceeding in which all the requirements of the 'law of the land' are satisfied, that is one thing. [34] But to confiscate the earning capacity that represents a large part of a lawyer's lifetime achievements on the theory that no such asset exists is quite another. ”

“ Property rights must yield provisionally to governmental need. Thus, while protection of life and liberty from administrative action alleged to be illegal may be obtained promptly by the writ of habeas corpus, United States v. ”

“ This note also called attention to similar adjustments of penalties in §§ 641 and 645, which relate to illegal abstractions of government records, vouchers and other things of value. Nothing was said of the distinction to which the Government would now have us accede. ”

“ When those with market power and leverage persuade, coerce, or influence others to cooperate in an illegal combination to their damage, allowing recovery to the latter is wholly consistent with the purpose of § 4, since it will deter those most likely to be responsible for organizing forbidden schemes. ”

“ When the circumstances of the time are such that it is deemed right and proper to abrogate all law, and to establish over the land a reign of terror and of the sword—to pour out, in deference to the paramount claims of the safety of the state, public money, whether obtained from present taxation or the mortgage of posterity, with profusion absolutely uncontrolled—to decree confiscation on a scale of unprecedented magnitude; it is obvious that a reputation for clemency, economy, and respect for the native rights of property, is obtainable under conditions that are not strictly normal. ”

“ That any government, that licenses a small amount of an article of such universal necessity as money, and that gives the control of it into a few hands, selected by itself, and then prohibits any and all other money—that is intrinsically honest and valuable—palpably violates all other men’s natural right to make their own contracts, and infallibly proves its purpose to be to enable the few holders of the licensed money to rob all other persons in the prices of their labor and property. ”

“ There is, therefore, a mass of recent legislation in the Southern States which we may entitle the peonage laws, which range from the highly objectionable and unconstitutional statute compelling a person to carry out his contract of labor under penalty as for a misdemeanor, to the more ingenious statutes which get at the same result by the indirect means of declaring a person guilty of breaking a contract under which he has acquired money or supplies punishable as for fraud. ”

“ And if any one, despising the laws for the sake of gain, be found to possess anything more which has not been registered, let all that he has in excess be confiscated, and let him be liable to a suit which shall be the reverse of honourable or fortunate. And let any one who will, indict him on the charge of loving base gains, and proceed against him before the guardians of the law. ”

“ Where a party pays an illegal demand with a full knowledge of all the facts which render such demand illegal, without an immediate and urgent necessity therefor, or unless to release his person or property from detention, or to prevent an immediate seizure of his person or property, such payment must be deemed to be voluntary, and cannot be recovered back. ”

“ Fears of forfeiture of property, and even of life, have been easily overcome by hopes of enormous gains, and so long as markets for slaves remain open, and imperfect execution of the laws permits the expectation of profit from crime, the most conspicuous results of penal legislation will be, more cunning in the contrivance and more adroitness in the use of means for evading or defeating its intent and operation. ”

“ For light weights and false measures, or for proved adulteration or dishonest manufacture of article, the penalty should be simply confiscation of goods and sending out of the country. The kind of person who desires prosperity by such practices could not be made to "emigrate" too speedily. ”

“ These violators were not the corporations, which we all know have no souls, but their officers; yet the officers have gone thus far unwhipped of justice, much to the disgust of the masses of the people. But in future this defect should be remedied, and rich and poor among the individual violators of the law should be prosecuted criminally, and upon conviction sent to jail like any other criminal. I can understand how many men, who as private individuals would have avoided criminal or wrongful acts, had no scruples about violating laws in their corporate capacity. ”

“ Even in the most flagrant violation of laws the chances of conviction are greatly restricted by the fact that a prosecuting witness, who, after making a contract in violation of law, takes advantage of that law to violate his contract, destroys all credit for himself, and so comes under the ban of society. The best methods of public restriction against extortion of any [pg 290] kind in interest, in rent or in prices of commodities are those that provide for publicity of contracts. ”

“ Should false money, whatever the metal may be, be found, besides the confiscation of everthing mentioned in the preceding clause, and besides a fine, equal to that the false money would represent, if legal, the offender shall be punished with all the penalties inflicted by the law on coiners; should the offender be unable to pay the fine, the metal shall be melted, and held, together with all the property that may have been recovered, for the benefit of the informer, and those who seized it. ”

“ It is one of the many regulatory acts that legislative bodies have passed in recent years to make unlawful certain practices in the field of economics that seemed contrary to the public interest. [4] These statutes made new crimes. ”

“ It is, beyond question, a revenue law, and the offence defined by it is therefore a crime arising under the revenue laws of the United States.
With regard to the first two counts the answer is not so clear.
The gravamen of the offence here is the conspiracy. For this there must be more than one person engaged. ”

“ But if God permitted men to hold men as property, equally with oxen, the man-thief, could get men with whom to pay the penalty, as well as the ox-thief, oxen. Further, when property was stolen, the legal penalty was a compensation to the person injured. But when a man was stolen, no property compensation was offered. To tender money as an equivalent, would have been to repeat the outrage with intolerable aggravations. Compute the value of a MAN in money! Throw dust into the scale against immortality! ”

“ And there is abundant evidence, that whatever benefit is possible from that compulsion to some individuals or to the government, is far more than outweighed by the losses of property, the derangement of business, the fluctuations of currency and values, and the increase of prices to the people and the government, and the long train of evils which flow from the use of irredeemable paper money. It is true that these evils are not to be attributed altogether to making it a legal tender. ”

“ This court has held that, where directions as to the method of conducting a business are embodied in a revenue act to prevent loss of taxes, and the act declares a willful failure to observe the directions a penal offense, an evil motive is a constituent element of the crime. ”

“ In a word, its only damages are those resulting, in its view, from the allowances for loading and unloading or like discriminatory acts, and not from any conspiracy transcending these particulars, a conspiracy of which allowances and privileges are a symptom or an incident. ”

“ Thus the part of a transaction becomes a crime in one citizen, while the whole of it is not a crime in another. The construction on the other side is, that the law meant to punish, not merely the consummation of the act, the fitting out and arming, but every step that is taken towards it; so that the fitting out, per se, becomes an offence, is a crime, without arming. ”

“ No jail-fee shall be charged to boys arrested for gambling, or to officials of our Audiencia arrested by order of our president and auditors—under a penalty of a fine of four times the amount, paid to our exchequer.
296. Item: No permission or opportunity for gambling shall be given in the jail, for money or other things except food. Wine shall not be sold to the poor; or, if sold, shall be sold at the price it is worth, and no more. No jail-fees shall be received from the poor under penalty of a fourfold fine for our exchequer. ”

“ Men are pleading guilty, paying enormous fines, in some jurisdictions, whilst, in others, it is constantly decided that identical conduct constitutes no offense.
One even sees those who, having taken great risks most helpful to trade, indignantly deny it, because of the undefined terrors of the Lever Act. ”

“ It is the case of a trade prohibited to American citizens under very heavy penalties, penalties which have since been aggravated to the infliction of capital punishment. It is a trade odious in our country, and carries a permanent stain upon the reputation of all who are concerned in it, and is watched by the severest vigilance of the government. ”

“ Section 452 affects a class of persons having superior opportunities and power to perpetrate frauds and secure undue advantage over the general public in the acquisition of public lands. 'The purpose of the prohibition is to guard against the temptations and partiality likely to attend efforts to acquire public lands, or interests therein, by persons so situated, and thereby to prevent abuse and inspire confidence in the administration of the public-land laws.' Waskey v. ”

“ That the universal principle, applied by Courts administering the law of nations, was to consider the thing taken in delicto, as responsible, whether it was the property of the master, or of others. In cases of blockade, of contraband, of carrying enemy's property with false papers, of resistance to visitation and search, he is considered as the agent of the owner both of ship and cargo. So, also, the revenue laws, from the necessity of the case, regard him in that character, and subject the vessel and goods under his control to confiscation for his unlawful acts. ”