''Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois'', 118 U.S. 557 (1886), also known as the Wabash Case, was a

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

decision that severely limited the rights of states to control or impede

interstate commerce The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amo ...

. It led to the creation of the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...

The court

The majority's opinion was written by Justice Samuel Miller; joining him were associate justices Stephen Field, John Harlan, William Woods,

Stanley Matthews Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while stil ...

, and

Samuel Blatchford Samuel M. Blatchford (March 9, 1820 – July 7, 1893) was an American attorney and judge. He was most notable for his service as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from April 3, 1882 until his death in 1893. Early ...

. Dissenting were Chief Justice

Morrison Waite Morrison Remick "Mott" Waite (November 29, 1816 – March 23, 1888) was an American attorney, jurist, and politician from Ohio. He served as the seventh chief justice of the United States from 1874 until his death in 1888. During his tenur ...

and associate justices

Joseph Bradley Joseph Philo Bradley (March 14, 1813 – January 22, 1892) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1870 to 1892. He was also a member of the Electoral Commission that decided ...

and

Horace Gray Horace Gray (March 24, 1828 – September 15, 1902) was an American jurist who served on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and then on the United States Supreme Court, where he frequently interpreted the Constitution in ways that increa ...

The case

The case was argued on April 14, 1886 - April 15, 1886 and was decided on October 25, 1886, by vote of 6 to 3. Associate Justice Miller wrote for the Court with Associate Justices Field, Harlan, Woods, Matthews, and Blatchford concurring; Associate Justices Bradley and Gray, along with Chief Justice Waite, dissented. In ''Wabash'', "direct" burdens on interstate commerce were not permitted by the Export Tax Clause of the Constitution (Article I, Section 9); however, those "indirect" burdens were permitted under the Commerce Clause. This was a standard enacted in '' Cooley v. Board of Wardens'' (1852).

Effects of decision

*The ''Wabash'' decision led to the creation in 1887 of the first modern regulatory agency, the

. *It clarified the "direct" v. "indirect" test (though this doctrine was abandoned in the 1930s). *It was one of the first instances in government assuming responsibility for economic affairs that had previously been delegated to the states.

References

External links

* * *
Supreme Court cases citing ''Wabash''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway Company V. Illinois Railway litigation in 1886 United States Constitution Article One case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Dormant Commerce Clause case law 1886 in United States case law Wabash Railroad Interstate Commerce Commission litigation Legal history of Illinois United States Supreme Court cases of the Waite Court

The court

The case

Effects of decision

See also

References

External links