Hattie Mae Ricks v. District of Columbia

SPOTTSWOOD W. ROBINSON, III, Circuit Judge:

Nearly every state in the Union has ventured to regulate in a criminal context an assortment of conduct characteristically grouped under the denomination “vagrancy.” 1 Congress, in like vein, has enacted the two statutes currently in operation in the District of Columbia commonly referred to as the “general vagrancy” 2 and “narcotic vagrancy” 3 laws. On this appeal we came face-to-face with claims of unconstitutionality directed toward the former. In a companion case, 4 decided today, we deal with similar challenges to the latter.

The legislation now…