White v. Adams

The majority are holding to be valid a statute which permitted ‘ ‘ Madame Rose ’ ’ to ply her trade as long as she was very successful because she had no effective competition from fortune tellers in a sister state and she could therefore pay the enormously high tax of $100 per week, but when competition became keen and she could no longer pay the tax, she must go out of business. Evidently the legislature did not consider that fortune telling was inherently injurious to the public health and morals, or such occupation would have been prohibited altogether. This was not done. Successful…