In Re Campbell
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Hart, J.
Petitioners, claiming that they are illegally restrained of their liberty by the sheriff of Humboldt County, ask this court for an order discharging them from such restraint through the writ of habeas corpus.
The return of the sheriff discloses that his authority for holding and restraining the petitioners is derived from an order, made by the police judge in and for the city oif Eureka, Humboldt County, committing the petitioners to his custody pending their trial for the alleged violation of the provisions of section 4 of Ordinance No. 813 of said city, or until a bail bond in the sum of five hundred dollars each was furnished and duly filed by them.
The question presented here is whether section 4 of the ordinance, under which the petitioners are being held, represents the exercise of valid legislative power. So much of said section as is pertinent to the present consideration reads as follows:
Section 8 of the ordinance makes the violation of any of its provisions a misdemeanor and the offender subject to a fine of five hundred dollars, or to imprisonment for not exceeding six months, or to both such fine and imprisonment.