Edwards

This is an appeal from a judgment, sought upon an information claimed to charge a criminal contempt, holding appellant Edwards guilty of contempt in violating an injunction of the District Court restraining him from violating an order of the Secretary of Agriculture, hereafter called the Citrus Order, limiting the volume of oranges to he shipped by him from the State of California into interstate commerce. No question is raised as to the validity of the Citrus Order (Cf. Edwards v. United States, 9 Cir., 91 F.2d 767 ) nor as to the validity of the injunction. Another defendant, a California corporation, Edwards Fruit Company, Inc., was adjudged not guilty.

*466 Edwards at the conclusion of the Government’s case below moved to dismiss, thus raising the question, inter alios, as to the sufficiency of the information. This question was not raised on the briefs, but at the hearing, where it was discussed by both parties and considered by us and was submitted for our decision.

The information nowhere directly charges that Edwards violated the injunction. It is difficult to understand why the draftsman of a criminal pleading should have avoided the plain statement that Edwards had…