Sec. 8.-Powers of Congress To Regulate Cl. 3.-Commerce To regulate, in the sense intended, is to foster, protect, control, and restrain, with appropriate regard for the welfare of those who are immediately concerned and of the public at large. Second Employers' Liability Cases, 223 U. S. 47. The power to regulate includes the power to prohibit in cases where such prohibition is in aid of the lawful protection of the public. Lottery Case, 188 U. S. 321. Reid v. Colorado, 187 U. S. 137. Addyston Pipe, etc., Co. v. U. S., 175 U. S. 211. U. S. v. Joint Traffic Assn., 171 U. S. 505. Rhodes v. Iowa, 170 U. S. 412. Nature, Extent, and Grounds of Power The power of Congress extends to such acts done on land which interfere with the due exercise of its powers to regulate commerce, including navigation. U. S. v. Coombs, 12 Pet. 72. Steamship Co. v. Joliffe, 2 Wall. 459. So far as it may be necessary to protect the products of other states and countries from discrimination by reason of their foreign origin, the power of the National Government over commerce reaches the interior of every State in the Union. Guy v. Baltimore, 100 U. S. 434. St. Louis v. Western Union Tel. Co., 149 U. S. 465. The power to regulate commerce has no limitations other than those prescribed in the Constitution, but does not carry with it the right to destroy or impair those limitations and guaranties which are also placed in the Constitution and amendments. U. S. v. Joint Traffic Assn., 171 U. S. 505. Relation of Admiralty and Maritime Jurisdiction1 The Act of February 26, 1845 (5 Stat. 726), extending the jurisdiction of the district courts to certain cases upon the lakes and navigable waters connecting the same is not referable to the commerce clause, but was enacted under the clause granting maritime and admiralty jurisdiction to the Federal courts. The Genesee Chief v. Fitzhugh, 12 How. 443. Fretz v. Bull, 12 How. 466. The Belfast, 7 Wall. 624. The power of Congress to legislate on the subject of the right of recovery for death on the high seas caused by negligence has been derived both from the power to regulate commerce and from the clause extending the judicial power to cases of maritime and admiralty jurisdiction. Old Dominion S. S. Co. v. Gilmore, 207 U. S. 404. See also same subject, Article III, section 2, p. 446. Sec. 8.-Powers of Congress Cl. 3.-Commerce Congress has undoubted authority under the commercial power, if no other, to introduce such changes as are likely to be needed. The scope of the maritime law and that of commercial regulation are not conterminous, but the latter embraces much of the largest portion of ground covered by the former. Under it Congress has regulated the registry, enrolment, license, and nationality of ships and vessels; the method of recording bills of sale and mortgages thereon; the rights and duties of seamen; the limitations of the responsibility of shipowners for the negligence and misconduct of their captains and crews; and many other things of a character truly maritime. The Lottawanna, 21 Wall. 577. Providence, etc., S. S. Co. v. Hill Mfg. Co., 109 U. S. 589. Right to Raise Constitutional Question An interstate carrier who has refused to furnish cars for interstate transportation, as required by State statute, can not test the constitutionality of the act as affecting interstate commerce in a suit to enjoin actions to recover penalties for violation of its provisions where provisions affecting interstate commerce are separable from the remaining provisions. Hampton v. St. Louis, etc., R. Co., 227 U. S. 456. Williams v. Walsh, 222 U. S. 415. Missouri, etc., R. Co. v. Cade, 233 U. S. 642. The constitutionality of an act is not involved in a case where the plaintiff is not affected by the provisions of the act. Chicago Board of Trade v. Olsen, 262 U. S. 1. Effect of the Fifth Amendment 1 The power of Congress to regulate commerce is subject to the limitation of the fifth amendment, and in exercising the power to take private property it must proceed subject to that amendment. Monongahela Nav. Co. v. U. S., 148 U. S. 312. Riparian owners who have erected on a water front wharves conforming to harbor line adopted by the Federal Government have no right to compensation under the fifth amendment where Congress establishes a new harbor line requiring destruction of a portion of such structures. Greenleaf-Johnson Lbr. Co. v. Garrison, 237 U. S. 251. U. S. v. Delaware & H. Co., 213 U. S. 366. Effect of the Eleventh Amendment' This amendment, prohibiting the bringing of a suit against a State by a citizen of another State, can not be construed to nullify the power of Congress to regulate commerce nor prevent an action to restrain a State railroad commission from enforcing an order injuriously affecting interstate commerce. Mississippi v. Illinois Cent. R. Co.. 203 U. S. 335. Sec. 8.-Powers of Congress Commencement and Termination of Power Cl. 3.-Commerce Goods do not cease to be part of the general mass of property in the State, subject as such to its jurisdiction and to taxation in the usual way, until they have been shipped, or entered with a common carrier for transportation to another State, or have been started upon such transportation in a continuous route or journey. Coe v. Errol, 116 U. S. 527. Texas, etc., R. Co. v. Sabine Tram Co., 227 U. S. 111. The Daniel Ball, 10 Wall. 565. Diamond Match Co. v. Ontonagon, 188 U. S. 96. U. S. v. Knight Co., 156 U. S. 13. Addyston Pipe, etc., Co. v. U. S. 175 U. S. 211. The commercial power continues until the commodity has ceased to be the subject of discriminating legislation by reason of its foreign character. That power protects it, even after it has entered the State, from any burdens imposed by reason of its foreign origin. Welton v. Missouri, 91 U. S. 282. Tierman v. Rinker, 102 U. S. 127. General Oil Co. v. Crain, 209 U. S. 211. Kelley v. Rhoads, 188 U. S. 7. Pittsburg, etc., Coal Co. v. Bates, 156 U. S. 577. Brown v. Houston, 114 U. S. 622. Illinois Cent. R. Co. v. Louisiana, 236 U. S. 157. Susquehanna Coal Co. v. South Amboy, 228 U. S. 665. Johnson v. Southern Pac. Co., 196 U. S. 22. The point of time when the prohibition ceases and the power of the State to tax commences is not the instant when the article enters the country, but when the importer has so acted upon it that it has become incorporated and mixed up with the mass of property in the country, which happens when the original package is no longer such in his hands. Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S. 110. Emert v. Missouri, 156 U. S. 296. McNeill v. Southern R. Co., 202 U. S. 543. When goods are sent from one State to another for sale, or in consequence of a sale, they become part of its general property, and amenable to its laws; provided that no discrimination be made against them as goods from another State, and that they be not taxed by reason of being brought from another State, but only taxed in the usual way as other goods are. Robbins v. Shelby County, 120 U. S. 497. Sec. 8.-Powers of Congress Application of Principles of Common Law Cl. 3.-Commerce The principles of the common law are operative upon all interstate commercial transactions except so far as they are modified by congressional enactment. Western Union Tel. Co. v. Call, 181 U. S. 101. Hall v. De Cuir, 95 U. S. 490. National Power of Eminent Domain1 Whenever it becomes necessary, for the accomplishment of any object within the authority of Congress, to exercise the right of eminent domain and take private lands, making just compensation to the owners, Congress may do this, with or without a concurrent act of the State in which the lands lie. Luxton v. North River Bridge Co., 153 U. S. 529. Cherokee Nation v. Southern Kansas R. Co., 135 U. S. 657. Gilman v. Philadelphia, 3 Wall. 713. Exclusive Powers of Congress Over Commerce In General In the exercise of its exclusive power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce Congress has enacted several statutes which not only restrain the States but act directly upon individuals and corporations engaged in such commerce and impose restrictions. or create affirmative duties. Among the most important of these are: The interstate commerce act, first enacted in 1887 and many times amended. The predominant purpose of its enactment was to prevent unreasonable and discriminatory rates, but the Interstate Commerce Commission was not empowered to fix rates. By the Hepburn Act of 1906 this power was conferred upon the commission, transportation companies were forbidden to transport their own commodities, the giving of free passes was regulated, pipe lines, express companies, and sleeping-car companies were brought within the provisions of the act, and the supervisory powers of the commission were much enlarged. In 1910 the jurisdiction of the commission was extended to cover telegraph and telephone companies, and it was empowered to suspend advances in rates. By the Panama act of 1912 the power of the commission was extended to transportation by both water and rail, but not over commerce that moved wholly by water. In 1913 the commission was directed to undertake a physical valuation of all the property owned by every carrier subject to its jurisdiction. The antitrust act of 1890 provided that "every contract, combination in the form of trust, or otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States or with foreign nations is hereby declared to be illegal." This act has been applied to combinations among transportation companies, to holding companies which interfere with the freedom of interstate commerce, to combinations of manufacturers for the pur See also "Eminent Domain," under Amendment 5, p. 607. Sec. 8.-Powers of Congress Cl. 3.-Commerce pose of controlling the course of trade, and to labor unions conducting a boycott which interfered with interstate commerce. The employers' liability act of 1906 considerably modified the fellow-servant rule of the common law as applied to the employees of carriers. As the act applied to persons in both intrastate and interstate commerce, it was declared unconstitutional in respect to the former, but was held valid as to carriers in the District of Columbia and the Territories. In order to meet the objections raised by the Supreme Court, Congress in 1908 passed a second act, which is confined to persons actually engaged in interstate commerce, and this was sustained by the Supreme Court. The Federal safety appliance acts, enacted in 1893 and the years following, required interstate trains to be equipped with certain safety devices. The hours of service act of 1907 restricted the hours of labor of railway employees operating trains moving in interstate commerce. The so-called "Adamson law" of 1916 established an eighthour day and minimum wages for employees of carriers engaged in interstate and foreign commerce. The Federal Trade Commission act of 1914 creates the Federal Trade Commission. The gist of the act is contained in the provision "that unfair methods of competition in commerce are hereby declared unlawful." The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 undertakes to prevent all persons engaged in interstate commerce from discriminating in prices between different purchasers of commodities or to accord preferential treatment to one person over another. Corporations engaged in interstate commerce are forbidden to purchase the stock of another corporation when such purchase would substantially diminish competition, and the right of individuals to act as director in more than one corporation is restricted. The relation between carriers and the corporations from which they obtain service or supplies is also regulated. The Federal control act of March 21, 1918, under which, pursuant to the act of August 29, 1916, and the President's proclamation of December 26, 1917, the railroads were taken over and administered under the war power, gave the Government full possession and control of the transportation systems of the country, and gave the President and the Interstate Commerce Commission power to fix all rates, interstate and intrastate, and superseded State power over the subject during the period of such control. The transportation act of February 28, 1920, Title III, creates the Railroad Labor Board, and clothes it with authority to entertain and decide disputes between carriers and their employees in respect of wages, grievances, rules, or working conditions, directs that all parties to such disputes be accorded a hearing 12703°-S. Doc. 157, 68-1-10 |