Ex parte Lacey

The petitioner has been convicted and imprisoned for violating a city ordinance of the city of Los Angeles, which provides: “No person or persons shall establish or conduct any steam shoddy machine, or steam carpet-beating machine, within one hundred feet of any church, schoolhouse, residence, or dwelling-house.” He now alleges the judgment void upon the ground that the ordinance is void, and seeks his release by writ of habeas corpus. He claims the ordinance void upon the ground that it interferes with certain of his inalienable rights vouchsafed to him by the constitution. Upon the part of the city it is claimed that the passage and enforcement of the ordinance is but the exercise of a police power granted to it in terms by the constitution of the state.

The constitution of the state of California, article XI, section 11, provides: “Any county, city, town, or township may make and enforce, within its limits, all such local, police, sanitary, and other regulations as are *328 not in conflict with general laws.” It will thus be observed that Los Angeles city is vested with certain powers by direct grant from the constitution, and that grant of power is not confined within narrow…