Slack-filled Packages: Hearings Before ..., 70-1 on H.R. 487 ..., May 8 and 9, 1928

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Page 6 - SECOND : If it be labeled or branded so as to deceive or mislead the purchaser, or purports to be a foreign product when not so, or if the contents of the package as originally put up shall have been removed in whole or in part and other contents shall have been placed in such package...
Page 2 - An act for preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded, or poisonous, or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes...
Page 42 - If the Legislature undertakes to define by statute a new offense, and provide for its punishment, it should express its will in language that need not deceive the common mind. Every man should be able to know with certainty when he is committing a crime.
Page 2 - If in package form the quantity of the contents be not plainly and conspicuously marked on the outside of the package...
Page 2 - If in package form, the quantity of the contents be not plainly and conspicuously marked on the outside of the package in terms of weight, measure, or numerical count; provided, however, that reasonable variations shall be permitted, and tolerances and also exemptions as to small packages shall be established by rules and regulations made in accordance with the provisions of section Three of this Act.
Page 42 - It would certainly be dangerous if the Legislature could set a net large enough to catch all possible offenders and leave it to the courts to step inside and say who could be rightfully detained and who should be set at large. This would, to some extent, substitute the judicial for the legislative department of the government.
Page 42 - A criminal statute cannot rest upon an uncertain foundation. The crime, and the elements constituting it, must be so clearly expressed that the ordinary person can intelligently choose, in advance, what course it is lawful for him to pursue. Penal statutes prohibiting the doing of certain things, and providing a punishment for their violation, should not admit of such a double meaning that the citizen may act upon the one conception of its requirements and the courts upon another.
Page 12 - Second," in the case of food, and inserting in lieu thereof a semicolon, and adding thereafter the following clause: " or if it be in a container made, formed, or shaped so as to deceive or mislead the purchaser as to the quantity, quality, size, kind, or origin of the food contained therein"; and (b) By adding at the end thereof a new paragraph to read as follows: "Fifth.
Page 2 - ... drugs are prepared for interstate or foreign commerce, or for sale in the District of Columbia or the Territories, in order to ascertain whether the articles are adulterated or misbranded; and the misbranding provisions of the act should be extended to food containers so made or shaped as to be likely to deceive or mislead the purchaser as to the quantity, quality, size, or origin of their contents.
Page 42 - The dividing line between what is lawful and unlawful cannot be left to conjecture. The citizen cannot be held to answer charges based upon penal statutes whose mandates are so uncertain that they will reasonably admit of different constructions. A criminal statute cannot rest upon an uncertain foundation. The crime, and the elements constituting it, must be so clearly expressed that the ordinary person can intelligently choose, in advance, what course it is lawful for him to pursue.

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