In Re Junqua

—On the thirtieth day of July, 1908, the petitioner was convicted of á misdemeanor in the violation of Ordinance No. 839 of the city of Sacramento in the city justice’s court of said city, and was committed to the custody of the chief of police in default of the payment of the fine imposed upon him by the court. He now claims that the ordinance, for the infringement of the provisions of which he is imprisoned, is invalid “for the reason that it is unreasonable and oppressive, ’ ’ and, therefore, repugnant to the constitution of the state and to the federal constitution. For this reason, he insists, he is entitled to be restored to Ms liberty through the writ of habeas corpus.

Section 1 of the ordinance under which the petitioner was tried and convicted declares that “it shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to permit any soot to escape from the smokestack or from the chimney of any furnace within the city of Sacramento in which distillate or crude oil is consumed as fuel,” and section 2 prescribes a penalty for the violation of the first section.

It is the claim of the petitioner that the ordinance is void upon its face because, under its terms, the mere fact…