Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 82, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1909 — Judge Dodge’s Decision Causes Sensation In State. [ARTICLE]

Judge Dodge’s Decision Causes Sensation In State.

Indianapolis, June 29.—The decision of Judge Dodge, the well known jurist at Goshen, that the county local option law is unconstitutional has resulted already in more gossip and more speculation here than anything that has happened in the state courts in many a day. Copies of the opinion have been sent for by leaders on both sides of the crusade that has been going on under the direction of the antt-sa loon league for the last eight months. The anti-salopn league leaders were plainly disconcerted over the decision as they understood that an appeal will be taken by the state’s attorney at Goshen and there will be no chance to get a decision from the supreme court on the constitutionality of the law before next fall or, winter. Judge Dodge's decision has seryed to recall that the supreme court of Indiana, away back before the civil war, declared that township local option was not constitutional. It took the ground that the legislature could not delegate to the people of a township the authority to vote away a constitutional privilege to license saloons.

The position of many opponents of the law is that while local option may not be invalid in Ohio and some other states, that there is a provision in the Indiana constitution providing for the licensing of saloons that makes a county prohibitory law unconstitutional.