62 Cases of Jam et al. v. United States (340 U.S. 593)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 26, 1951 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 340 U.S. 593 · 71 S. Ct. 515
- Decided
- March 26, 1951
- Term
- October Term 1950
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Frankfurter
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Frankfurter delivered the opinion of the Court. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act authorizes the United States to bring a libel against any article of food which is “misbranded” when using the channels of interstate commerce. Act of June 25, 1938, § 304, 52 Stat. 1040,1044, 21 U. S. C. § 334. The Act defines “mis-branded” in the eleven paragraphs of § 403. 52 Stat. 1047-1048, 21 U. S. C. § 343. The question before us is raised by two apparently conflicting paragraphs. One of them, subsection (c), comes from the original Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906. Act of June 30,1906, 34 Stat. 768, 770-771, § 8 (first paragraph concerning “food,” and second proviso). It directs that a food shall be deemed “misbranded” if it “is an imitation of another food, unless its label bears, in type of uniform size and prominence, the word 'imitation’ and, immediately thereafter, the name of the food imitated.” The other, subsection (g), was added by the enlargement of the statute in 1938. It condemns as “misbranded” a product which “purports to be or is represented as a food,” the ingredients of which the Administrator has standardized, if the product does not conform in all respects to the standards prescribed. The Administrator has authority to promulgate standards when in his judgment “such action will promote honesty and fair dealing in the interest of consumers.” § 401, 52…
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