NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY ET AL.
v.
STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA ON THE RELATION OF LANGER, ATTORNEY GENERAL.
Supreme Court of United States.https://leagle.com/images/logo.png
Argued May 5, 1919.
Decided June 2, 1919.
Attorney(s) appearing for the Case
Mr. John Barton Payne and Mr. Charles Donnelly, with whom The Solicitor General and Mr. R.V. Fletcher were on the brief, for the Director General of Railroads, maintained that the war power, limited only by the needs of the Government and independent of state lines, supported the action taken; that the act in letter and spirit shows a purpose to bring about a unified federal control, utterly inconsistent with the retention of state power over intrastate rates; and that the proviso saving "lawful police regulations" (§ 15) must be read accordingly, and subject to the particular provisions of § 10 expressly allowing the President to initiate rates, etc. The words "police regulations" are used here in contrast with "laws and powers" as applied to taxation; they include regulations for safety, health, etc. The railroads became federal agencies, not subject to state police power.
Mr. Charles W. Bunn filed a brief on behalf of the Northern Pacific Railway Co.
Mr. Frank E. Packard, with whom Mr. William Langer, Attorney General of the State of North Dakota, and Mr. W.V. Tanner were on the brief, for defendant in error:
Supreme Court of United States.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WHITE delivered the opinion of the court.
In taking over the railroads from private ownership to its control and operation, was the resulting power of the United States to fix the rates to be charged for the transportation services to be by it rendered subordinated to the asserted authority of the several States to regulate the rates for all local or intrastate...
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