Ex parte Wah

The petitioner was convicted in a justice’s court of Contra Costa County of the alleged offense of hindering and obstructing the town marshal of the town of Martinez, in that county, in the collection of certain street poll-taxes of and in that town. The alleged obstruction consisted in petitioner’s refusal to give his true name to the officer when requested to do so.

It is claimed that this act was a violation of section 428 of the Penal Code, which reads as follows: “Every person who willfully obstructs or hinders any public officer from collecting any revenue, taxes, or other sums of money in which the people of this state are interested, and which such officer is by law empowered to collect, is guilty of a misdemeanor.”

It appears that Martinez is a town of the sixth class, and by section 862 of the municipal corporation bill, approved March 13, 1883, towns of that class are given power “to impose on and collect from any male inhabitant between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years an annual street poll-tax not exceeding two dollars,” and *511 are also authorized to levy and collect a property tax for street-work and other municipal purposes.

It is very clear to us that…