Kitagawa

These cases were consolidated by stipulation. Both involve the validity of a tai upon automobiles. It is claimed that the act of the Legislature of Hawaii imposing a tax upon automobiles by weight, in lieu of all other taxes (section 1306 of the Revised Laws of Hawaii, 1925, as amended by Act 180 of the Session Laws of Hawaii, 1925, and by Acts 33, 172, and 246 of the Session Laws of Hawaii, 1927), is in violation of the limitations of amendment 5 to the Constitution of the United States, for the reason that such taxation is a violation of due process of law within the meaning of the said Fifth Amendment, which, by the terms of the Organic Act, limits the power of the territorial Legislature. That act provides (section 5) as follows: “That the Constitution, and, except as otherwise provided, all the laws of the United States * * * which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said Territory as elsewhere in the United States.”

Section 55 provides: “That the legislative power of the Territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States locally applicable.”

It is…