BLUE SKY LAWS. This term is popularly applied in the United States to statutes enacted in almost all the States to pro tect credulous purchasers of stocks and bonds from fraud. For merly, in the absence of definite laws to prevent the practice, pro moters of fraudulent schemes and projects made with impunity the most extravagant representations, the sky being the only limit to their claims. Kansas, in 1911, was the first State to enact a Blue Sky law. Among other requirements it compelled investment companies to file with the secretary of State a full description of their business and prohibited their selling securities until au thorized by the bank commissioner. Within two years 18 other States had adopted similar legislation. Confronted by laws which seriously threatened their enormous revenue and menaced them selves with imprisonment, promoters of "wild-cat" and other spurious schemes sought in 1914 to have Blue Sky legislation declared unconstitutional. Courts in Michigan, Ohio and Iowa upheld these contentions, but in 1917 the United States Supreme Court decided that Blue Sky laws were constitutional on the ground that "the prevention of deception is within the compe tency of government." By 1928 all of the States except Nevada and Delaware had Blue Sky laws or their equivalents in force.