The Laundry License Case

The act incorporating the city of Portland, approved October 24, 1882, provides that the council has power and authority “to control and regulate slaughter-houses, wash-houses, and public laundries, and provide for their exclusion from the city limits or from any part thereof.” On December 4, 1884, the council passed an ordinance, No. 4,448, “to license and regulate wash-houses and public-laundries.” This ordinance declares every “house, building, or place which is open to the public as a laundry or wash-house,” to be “a public laundry or wash-house;” and requires the “proprietor or manager”…