POWER TO ENACT GAME LAWS. 559 



a right to enact that birds may be killed and sold for domestic 

 consumption only: "The birds in question never became 

 articles of commerce. . . They became private property of 

 a qualified character." " This judgment was affirmed in the 

 Supreme Court of the United States where, without deciding 

 whether the game killed was an article of commerce, the 

 court said : "The fact that internal commerce may be distinct 

 from interstate commerce, destroys the whole theory upon 

 Avhich the argument of the plaintiff in error proceeds. The 

 power of the State to control the killing of and ownership 

 in game being admitted, the commerce in game which the 

 State law permitted was necessarily only internal commerce, 

 since the restriction that it should not become the subject 

 of external commerce went along with the grant and was a 

 part of it. All ownership in game killed within the State 

 came under this condition, which the State had the lawful 

 authority to impose, and no contracts made in relation to 

 such property were exempt from the law of the State consent- 

 ing that such contracts be made, provided only they were 

 confined to internal and did not extend to external com- 

 merce." ^0 



This decision establishes the principle that the police power 

 of a State authorizes it to forbid the killing of certain game 

 within the State with the intent of procuring its transporta- 

 tion beyond the State limits, or having it in possession with 

 like intention. 



The State may also forbid internal commerce in game. A 

 provision that "it shall be unlawful for any person to consign 

 by common carrier to any commission merchant or sale 

 market, at any time, any elk, moose, caribou or deer, or any 

 part thereof Except the head or skin," was held not to be 

 unconstitutional as depriving the citizen of his privileges and 

 property without due process of law; the only restriction 



' State V. Geer, 6i Conn. 144. 



" Geer v. Conn., 161 U. S. 519, 532- Justices Field and Harlan dis- 

 sented. 



