Arceneaux v. Louisiana

Petitioner, who was before the state court “on a charge of vagrancy,” 1 raised several objections to a denial of a preliminary hearing. The third of these reads as follows:

“. . . that the bill of information charges no offense known to law and if it charges an offense within the meaning and intentment [sic] of a Louisiana statute, then both the statute and the bill of information are unconstitutional, null, and void, as being violative of the guaranties contained in the United States Constitution and of the Louisiana Constitution and Laws; . . .”

Louisiana Rev. Stat. § 15:154 provides that…