The New Jersey Legislature passed the Van Ness Act, and other State prohibition laws, at its session of 1921; but on February 2, 1922, the Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey held that a number of the provisions of the Van Ness Act were unconstitutional. The prevailing opinion was written by Chancellor Walker, but there was a difference among the judges as to the constitutionality of some of the different provisions of the act, and other opinions were also written. The Court of Errors and Appeals is the Court of last resort in New Jersey, and by its judgment it reversed the Supreme Court finding which had theretofore held the Van Ness Act to be constitutional.
Mrs. Van Ness was a candidate for reëlection in the fall of 1921, but was not reëlected. Is there no significance in this fact?
As old as Magna Charta is the right of any citizen to a trial by jury, when convicted of a crime; and as old, too, as that sacred document, is the theory that one is innocent until proved guilty. Yet the Volstead Act has paved the way for politicians without vision to seek to destroy these inalienable rights.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Among other things, in the opinion handed down in 1922, Chancellor Walker wrote:
“The act entitled ‘An act concerning intoxicating liquors used or to be used for beverage purposes,’ passed March 29, 1921, the short title of which is ‘Prohibition Enforcement Act,’ commonly called the Van Ness Act, authorizing convictions for violation of its provisions by magistrates without trial by jury, violates Article 1, Sec. 7, of the Constitution of New Jersey, 1844, which provides, inter alia, that the right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate; and also Id. Sec. 9, which provides, inter alia, that no person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense unless upon the presentment or indictment of a grand jury.”
And another judge rendered this opinion:
“The Van Ness Act is invalid to the extent that it makes violations of its provisions disorderly acts as distinguished from those which are criminal in their nature because, prior to its enactment, the Congress of the United States had already declared by necessary implication in the federal statute, commonly known as the Volstead Act, that a person who violated any provision of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, should be guilty of crime.”
The constitutional provision in the State of New Jersey has long been known to be as follows:
“The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate; but the legislature may authorize the trial of civil suits, when the matter in dispute does not exceed fifty dollars, by a jury of six men.”