Licensing law

“ Any Town Council or Town Board may, from time to time, appoint an Officer to issue the annual licences (not being licences under Act 38, 1896) required in the Borough or Township by wholesale or retail dealers. (2) Any person appointed to issue licences for wholesale or retail dealers under Law 38, 1884, or any like Stamp Act, or under this Act, shall be deemed to be a “Licensing Officer” within the meaning of this Act. (3) A Licensing Officer shall have discretion to issue or refuse a wholesale or retail licence not being a licence under Act 38, 1896 ”

“ These monopolies were defied, and the Star Chamber decree of 1566, disabling offending printers from exercising their trade and prescribing imprisonment, did not avail. In 1640 the Star Chamber and all the regulations of the press were abolished by the Long Parliament, but the abuse of unlicensed printing led to a new licensing act in 1643, which prohibited printing or importing without consent of the owner, on pain of forfeiture of copies to the owner, and which renewed the order that all books should be entered in the register of the Stationers' Company. ”

“ No power was sought against a third party. Under the present statute, the Commission could make a choice only within the scope of its licensing power, i.e., to grant or deny the license on the basis of the situation of the applicant. It could insist that the applicant change its situation before it granted a license, but it could not act as a bankruptcy court to change that situation for the applicant. The public interest, after all, is in the effective use of the available channels, and only to that extent in what particular applicant receives a license. ”

“ But the mere fact that a state law has an effect on the Yakamas while they are exercising a treaty right does not establish that the law impermissibly burdens the right itself. And the right to travel with goods is just an application of the Yakamas’ right to travel. It ensures that the Yakamas enjoy the same privileges when they travel with goods as when they travel without them. It is not an additional right to possess whatever goods they wish on the highway, immune from regulation and taxation. ”

“ No announcement of general licensing policy can relieve the Commission of its statutory obligation to examine each application for a license and determine whether a grant or denial is required by the public interest. ”

“ Such a defense is not allowed. 'It is well settled that where a licensing ordinance, valid on its face, prohibits certain conduct unless the person has a license, one who without a license engages in that conduct can be criminally prosecuted without being allowed to show that the application for a license would have been unavailing. * * * In short, the individual is given the choice of securing a license, or staying out of the occupation, or, before he acts, seeking a review in the civil courts of the licensing authority's refusal to issue him a license. ”

“ The Washington law at issue here imposes a nondiscriminatory fuel tax. The Chief Justice concludes that the fuel tax is not a highway regulation and, for that reason, he says that the fuel tax does not infringe the Tribe’s treaty right to travel on the public highways. I agree with The Chief Justice and join his dissent.
Even if the fuel tax is a highway regulation, it is a nondiscriminatory highway regulation. For that reason as well, the fuel tax does not infringe the Tribe’s treaty right to travel on the public highways on equal terms with other U. S. citizens. ”

“ No. 2980, 81st Cong., 2d Sess. 1-2; S.Rep. No. 1358, 81st Cong., 2d Sess. 5; cf. H.R.Rep. No. 1844, 80th Cong., 2d Sess. 1; 96 Cong.Rec. 13765, 14233, 14585.↑ See, e.g., S.Rep. No. 1358, 81st Cong., 2d Sess. 9:↑ We need not consider now the decisions in which this Court has struck down regulations requiring not merely registration but the securing of a license, issued either at the arbitrary discretion of licensing officials or by the application of licensing standards so broad or uncertain as to permit arbitrary action by officials, as prerequisite to the right to speak. ”

“ For example, inspections are required whenever ownership of a sexually oriented business changes, and when the business applies for the annual renewal of its permit. We, therefore, hold, as a threshold matter, that petitioners may raise a facial challenge to the licensing scheme, and that as the suit comes to us, the businesses challenging the scheme have a valid First Amendment interest. ”

“ The commissioner may revoke a license upon ascertaining that the licensee: (a) Is of bad repute; (b) has violated any provision of the act; or (c) has engaged, or is about to engage, under favor of such license, in illegitimate business or fraudulent transactions.
It will be observed, therefore, that the law is a regulation of business, constrains conduct only to that end, the purpose being to protect the public against the imposition of unsubstantial schemes and the securities based upon them. ”

“ But in all cases, even when mere notification is required, the governing authority has the right to refuse permission or to withdraw it for reasons given, and so it retains the power of control. At the same time holders of the permission may be compelled to pay for the privilege and so contribute to the public revenue. The great merit of the licensing system is its perfect elasticity, which permits adjustment to all sorts of conditions and to the varying demands of public opinion. ”

“ It may have been of opinion that one likely to be financially injured by the issue of a license would be the only person having a sufficient interest to bring to the attention of the appellate court errors of law in the action of the Commission in granting the license. ”

“ One half the doubts in life arise from the defects of language, and if this instrument had been called an exemption instead of a license, it would have given a better idea of its character. Licensing acts, in fact, in legislation, are universally restraining acts, as, for example, acts licensing gaming houses, retailers of spiritous liquors, &c. ”

“ It follows that the tax is not forbidden because it is part of a licensing measure. Even where it is undisputed that the commerce is exclusively interstate in nature, 'not the mere fact or form of licensing, but what the license stands for by way of regulation is important.' Robertson v. ”

“ In your opinion should not every play be seen by the Licenser, duly acted, with the costumes, before a licence can be granted? (b) and then that the licence be granted only on the condition that no alteration in word or action be made at any time, and under no pretence whatever, during the run, on pain of forfeiture of licence?
The above suggestions will serve as a foundation for some future Licensing Exam.-paper. ”

“ After the passing of the Act, no new licences, except for eating-houses and refreshment-rooms, were to be granted unless the consent of the County Councils had first been obtained, and even when new licences were granted, it was to be on the express understanding that their renewal might “at any time be refused at the free and unqualified discretion of the licensing authority”. ”

“ Of course, cases may be imagined where the power to issue permits may be abused, and the permission accorded to social or political favorites and denied to others, who, for reasons totally disconnected with the merits of the case, are distasteful to the licensing power. ”

“ An infringement claim exists, in addition to the contract claim, however, if the licensee's actions involve conduct prohibited by applicable property law and are either outside the scope of the license or occur after the license was cancelled or terminated. ”

“ Any attempted assignment or transfer short of those indicated in the statute 'is a mere license, giving the licensee no title in the patent, and no right to sue at law in his own name for an infringement.' [19] The legal position of the holder of a simple, unconditional, nonexclusive license is important. ”

“ The revocation of the appellant's license by the state treasurer without notice and hearing did not deprive it of property without due process in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Whether in other circumstances the license contemplated by the statutes under consideration might be considered property within the protection of the due process clause we need not determine. It is sufficient in this case to advert to the undisputed facts disclosed by the record. The law Imposes no penalty for conducting the business of a distributor without a license ”

“ In none is there the slightest pretense by the taxing authority, or the slightest suggestion by the state court, that the 'fee' is to defray expenses of the licensing system. The amounts of the 'fees', without more, demonstrate that such a contention is groundless. ”

“ The applicant for license must show affirmatively that he is trustworthy and competent. In the past the state took no pains to find this out. The licensing board operates as a poor man's court of redress in transactions arising out of the land business. ”

“ They, at least, have not laid themselves open to the charge of trimming. For more than thirty years the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill, has been their cry; and as a consequence they have seen these years pass without the carrying of any real amendment of our licensing system.
In 1873 the Gladstone Government, now drawing towards the close of its remarkable history, introduced a great measure of licensing reform, known at the time as Mr. Bruce's Bill. ”

“ We do not in any way imply that business premises may not reasonably be inspected in many more situations than private homes, nor do we question such accepted regulatory techniques as licensing programs which require inspections prior to operating a business or marketing a product. Any constitutional challenge to such programs can only be resolved, as many have been in the past, on a case-by-case basis under the general Fourth Amendment standard of reasonableness. ”

“ The answer to this suggestion is that the acceptance of a license, in whatever form, will not impose upon the licensee an obligation to respect or to comply with any provisions of the statute or with any regulations prescribed by the state railroad and warehouse commission that are repugnant to the Constitution of the United States. A license will give the defendant full authority to carry on its business in accordance with the valid laws of the state and the valid rules and regulations prescribed by the commission. ”

“ As Justice O'CONNOR notes in the course of refusing to apply one of the Freedman procedural mandates, the licensing in these cases is required of sexually oriented businesses, enterprises that will have every incentive to pursue the license applications vigorously. Ante, at 229-230. The ordinance requires that an application be acted on within 30 days. Licensing decisions suspending or revoking a license are immediately appealable to a permit and license appeal board and are stayed pending that appeal. ”

“ That they are not imaginary is now a matter of common knowledge, for, as the result of a case decided some years ago by one of the circuit courts of appeal, which has been followed by cases in other circuit courts of appeal, to which reference will hereafter be made, what prior to the first of those decisions on a sale of a patented article was designated a condition of sale, governed by the general principles of law, has come in practice to be denominated a license restriction ”

“ Somewhat less obviously, similar difficulties are presented for dealing with the more specific requirement of § 44.09 (b) for filing the notice of intention and the related one of § 44.12 for procuring and exhibiting the information card. [47] Simply upon the face of the ordinance (Article 4) , we would construe these provisions as excluding all reference to the licensing requirements of § 44.19, as well as the regulations relating to dealers in used articles, junk, etc., [48] as indeed the California Supreme Court's opinion seems to exclude them. ”

“ Licensee's Exemption from Liability Any person who works a patented product, substance and/or process under a license granted under this Chapter, shall be free from any liability for infringement: Provided, however, That in the case of voluntary licensing, no collusion with the licensor is proven. This is without prejudice to the right of the rightful owner of the patent to recover from the licensor whatever he may have received as royalties under the license. ”

“ Licensing, like a tax payable on the exercise of a First Amendment right (Murdock v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105, 63 S.Ct. 870, 87 L.Ed. 1292) , is therefore unconstitutional. See Thomas v. Collins, 323 U.S. 516, 65 S.Ct. 315, 89 L.Ed. 430. Yet registration, like licensing, may have aspects of harassment and burden. ”

“ This regulation, obviously, elaborates upon and describes in fuller detail the step-by-step licensing procedure contemplated by §§ 182 and 185. It states, pursuant to the authority conferred by §§ 104, subd. b and 161, subd. i (3) , what safety findings shall be required at each stage of the proceeding. ”

“ The higher the license, it is sometimes said, the better the regulation, as the effect of a high license is to keep out from the business those who are undesirable, and to keep within reasonable limits the number of those who may engage in it. ”

“ Clarity and flexibility would be the most obvious advantages of an administrative regime to promulgate exceptions to the statute’s termination provisions for open-content licensing. Consulting the agency’s list of nonterminable licenses would provide advance assurances to licensees that contributions to an open-content project would remain in the commons in perpetuity. Furthermore, as licensing instruments continued to evolve, the list of non-terminable licenses could expand as well. ”