Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1918 — SUPREME COURT’S GUESS NOW [ARTICLE]

SUPREME COURT’S GUESS NOW

Circuit Judge Holds Indiana “Dry” Law as Unconstitutional. Evansville, February 16. —Indiana’s state-wide prohibition law was held to be unconstitutionl and void by Judge F. M. Hostetter of the Vanderburg County Superior court here, today in ruling on a demurrer to a complaint filed by a number of brewing companies against the county prosecutor to enjoin him from enforcing the law after April 2, 1918, the date named for it to take effect. The action of the court disposes olf the last of the preliminary steps before actual trial of the facts and opens the way for an immediate appeal to the Indiana supreme court if the dry interests desire to take that step. Judge Hostetter declared that the prohibition law, in his opinion, was not one designed to limit and regulate the making and handling of alcoholic beverages, nor to confine the use of such beverages within the bounds of temperance and moderation, but absolutely to make temperance and moderate use of intoxicating liquors legally impossible. He decided the present constitution of Indiana would not permit such a law to stand.