The state of Louisiana has appeared at the bar of this court, through its attorney general, for the purpose of obtaining permission to file this petition against the Honorable William Gibbs McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and the Honorable C. S. Hamlin, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. The United States, by its Solicitor General, has appeared in opposition, contending that the suit is one against the United States, and cannot, therefore, be brought without its consent.
No principle is better established than that the United States may not be sued in the courts of this country without its consent. If, therefore, this be a suit against the United States, the state, though entitled as a state to appeal to the original jurisdiction of this court, must show some authority from Congress under which such a suit may be brought, or leave to file must be denied. United States v. Clarke, 8 Pet. 436, 8 L. ed. 1001; United States v. Lee, 106 U.S. 196, 27 L. ed. 171, 1 Sup. Ct. Rep. 240; Kansas v. United States, 204 U.S. 331, 333, 51 L. ed. 510, 27 Sup. Ct. Rep. 388.
That the United States is not named on the record as a party is true. But the question whether it is in legal effect a party to the controversy is not always determined by the fact that it is not named as a party on the record, but by the effect of the judgment or decree which can here be rendered. Minnesota v. Hitchcock, 185 U.S. 373, 387, 46 L. ed. 954, 962, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 650; Kansas v. United States, 204 U.S. 331, 333, 51 L. ed. 510, 27 Sup. Ct. Rep. 388.
The facts, briefly stated, upon which relief is asked, are these:
The state, as a part of its economic policy, operates with its convicts three sugar plantations and three sugar mills. It is therefore a producer of sugar, which must find a market in competition with that imported from the Republic of Cuba and other sugar exporting countries.
The petition avers that under the instructions of the defendant Treasury officials Cuban sugar, since March 1, 1914, the date upon which the Underwood tariff act became effective, is admitted into the United States at a rate of 1 1-100 cents per pound, being 80 per cent of 75 per cent of the rate of duty on sugar imposed by the Dingley tariff act of 1897 [30 Stat. at L. 151, chap. 11, U.S.C.omp. Stat. 1901, p. 1626], which was 1 685-1000 cents per pound. The contention made is that the rate which should be collected on Cuban sugar is the rate imposed by the Dingley tariff bill, less a reduction of 20 per cent, making the net rate legally collectable 1 348-1000 cents per pound, as provided in the commercial treaty between the United States and the Republic of Cuba of December 11, 1902 [33 Stat. at L. 2136], as made effective by the act of Congress of December 17, 1903 (33 Stat. at L. p. 3, chap. 1, U.S.C.omp. Stat. Supp. 1911, p. 739), 'or, in the alternative, the duty on all such sugar imported into the United States should be 75 per cent of the Dingley bill rate, or 1 26-100 cents per pound, as provided . . . in the Underwood bill of October 3, 1913, without any preferential rate whatever being allowed in favor of said Cuban sugar.' Article 2 of the convention referred to provides that the products of the soil or industry of Cuba not included in article 1 'shall be admitted at a reduction of 20 per cent of the rates of duty . . . as provided by the tariff act of the United States approved July 24, 1897, or as may be provided by any tariff law of the United States subsequently enacted.' A proviso to article 8 is in these words:
'That while this convention is in force, no sugar imported from the Republic of Cuba, and being the product of the soil or industry of the Republic of Cuba, shall be admitted into the United States at a reduction of duty greater than twenty per centum of the rates of duty thereon as provided by the tariff act of the United States approved July 24, 1897, and no sugar, the product of any other foreign country, shall be admitted by treaty or convention into the United States, while this convention is in force, at a lower rate of duty than that provided by the tariff act of the United States approved July 24, 1897.'
The reduction in all sugar duties made by the tariff act of 1913, effective March 1, 1914, is 25 per cent upon the former rate of the Dingley bill, and the same act after May 1, 1916, provides for the free admission of all sugar.