Matter of Application of Cencinino

The petition alleges that the petitioner is illegally held in restraint of his personal liberty by the sheriff of Humboldt County, and the return of that officer shows that he detains and is detaining the petitioner in custody under the authority of a warrant of arrest issued out of the justice’s court of Trinidad township, said county, upon a complaint charging the petitioner with the violation of the provisions of Ordinance No. 118, passed by the board of supervisors of Humboldt County on the sixteenth day of November, 1912, and which, by virtue of a provision therein contained, Went into effect on the third day of December, 1912.

Said ordinance reads in part as follows:

The ordinance declares that the true intent and purpose thereof is “solely to secure the better protection of the crabs and clams in the public waters and grounds within the County of Humboldt, State of California, and not for the regulation of the business of dealing in crabs and clams.”

The petitioner, in support of his claim that his restraint is illegal, makes this point: That, by the adoption, in the year 1902, of section 25% of article IY of the constitution (see Stats. 1901, p. 948), the people…