Jimmie Merl Mason v. United States

Appellant was charged in the district court with a violation of 18 United States Code, Section 1407 , in that, being a citizen of the United States who was then addicted to and a user of narcotic drugs, he entered the United States at the port of Tecate, California, without registering with a customs official, agent, or employee at said port of entry as required by law, and without surrendering the certificate required by law to be obtained by him upon leaving the United States. After entering a plea of not guilty, and preserving his objections to the constitutionality of the statute upon various grounds, including that hereinafter mentioned, he was tried by the court, jury waived, and convicted and sentenced. Before and during the trial he contended, among other things, that the statute insofar as it purported to require such registration, etc., by one who “uses narcotic drugs,” was void for vagueness under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

At the trial, it was stipulated by the defendant-appellant and the prosecution, among other things, that the defendant was a “user of narcotics” but was not addicted to narcotic drugs on the day…