The original action in the case of Smyth _v._ Ames was a bill in equity brought against the attorney-general and the Nebraska state board of transportation, in the Federal circuit court, by certain bondholders of the railroads affected, to restrain the enforcement of the statute of that state providing a comprehensive schedule of freight rates. The bills alleged, and attempted to demonstrate by elaborate calculations, that the rates fixed were _confiscatory_, inasmuch as a proportionate reduction on all the rates of the railroads affected by them would so reduce the income of the companies as to make it impossible for them to pay any dividends; and in the case of some of them, even to meet all their bonded obligations. On behalf of the state, it was urged that the reduction in rates would increase business, and, therefore, increase net earnings, and that some at least of the companies were bonded far in excess of their actual value. Supreme Court Justice Brewer, sitting in circuit, on the basis of the evidence submitted to him, consisting mainly of statements of operating expenses, gross receipts, and inter- and intra-state tonnage, found the contention of the railroads well taken, and issued the injunctions applied for. The opinion of the Supreme Court, affirming the decree of Judge Brewer, was, in the essential part of it--that asserting the principle of judicial review in its broadest terms--singularly brief. Contenting himself with citing a few short _dicta_ from previous decisions, Justice Harlan, speaking for the Court, declared that the principle "must be regarded as settled" that the reasonableness of a rate could not be so conclusively determined by a legislature as to escape review by the judiciary. Equally well settled, it was declared, was the principle that property affected with a public interest was entitled to a "fair return" on its "fair" valuation. These principles regarded as established, the Court proceeded to examine the evidence, although it admitted that it lacked the technical knowledge necessary to a completely equitable decision; and sustained the finding of the lower court in favor of the railroads. There was no dissent. With Smyth _v._ Ames the doctrine of judicial review may be regarded as fully established. No portion of the judicial prerogative could now be surrendered without not merely "distinguishing" but flatly overruling a unanimous decision of the Court.