In Re Smith

Application for writ of habeas corpus . The petitioner, who, on the nineteenth day of August, 1923, was engaged in the business of conducting an employment agency in the city of Los Angeles, is restrained of his liberty by the chief of police of said city of Los Angeles by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued upon a criminal complaint charging him with the violation of that portion of section IV/2 of an amendatory act of the legislature approved June 18, 1923 (Stats. 1923, p. 938), which provides as follows:

The offense consists in charging and collecting fees in excess of the amounts provided by said act. No violation of the act so far as it relates to applicants for employment classified as “manual” is claimed and therefore it is not necessary to reprint the portion of the act dealing with that classification.

It is admitted by respondent that the business of conducting an employment agency is lawful, useful, and beneficial to society. It is claimed, however, that the business furnishes an exceptionally fertile field for the growth of industrial abuses which it was the purpose of the legislature to prevent by the adoption of said amendatory act. It is the claim of respondent…