In Re Lake

Habeas corpus. The facts herein appear to be as follows: Based upon a complaint filed in the municipal court of the city of Los Angeles, petitioner was convicted of the commission of a misdemeanor in that within said city and on a specified date he did “wilfully and unlawfully conduct and carry on the business of selling and disposing of drugs, nostrums and ointments for the treatment of disease by then and there haranguing the people on public streets and in public places, . . . contrary to the provisions of an act imposing a license tax upon itinerant vendors of drugs, . „ . approved March 19, 1903, and amendments thereto.”

The statute (Stats. 1903, p. 284, as amended, Stats. 1907, p. 765, and Stats. 1909, p. 419) contains a provision to the effect that in any prosecution for a violation of the terms of the act “it need not be alleged in the complaint nor proved by the prosecution” that the defendant had no license to sell the articles specified in the act, but that such fact may be pleaded by the defendant as a matter of defense.

The principal point urged by petitioner is that such provision of the statute is discriminatory and lacking in uniformity of operation and…