The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation: Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 30, 1952
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The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation: Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 30, 1952
Constitutional law -- United States; Constitutions -- United States
A State is entitled to enact a comprehensive scheme for the licensing
and regulation of motor vehicles using its highways with a view to
insuring itself of reasonable compensation for the facilities afforded
and to providing adequate protection of the public safety; and such
scheme may embrace out-of-State vehicles using the State's
highways.[825] Thus legislation limiting the net loads of trucks using
the State's highways is valid;[826] as are also, in the absence of
national legislation on the subject, State regulations limiting the
weight and width of the vehicles themselves, provided such regulations
are applied without discrimination as between vehicles moving in
interstate commerce and those operating only intrastate.[827] Likewise,
a State may deny a certificate of public convenience and necessity to
one desiring to operate a common carrier over a particular highway to an
out-of-State destination in an adjacent State, on the ground that the
specified route is already congested. So it was held in Bradley _v._
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio,[828] in which the Court took
cognizance of the full hearing accorded the appellant, and of his
failure to choose another route, although he was at liberty to do so.
And in Maurer _v._ Hamilton a Pennsylvania[829] statute prohibiting the
operation over its highways of any motor vehicle carrying any other
vehicle over the head of the operator was upheld in the absence of
conflicting Congressional legislation. Similarly, in Welch _v._ New
Hampshire[830] a statute of that State establishing maximum hours for
drivers of motor vehicles was held not to be superseded by the Federal
Motor Carrier Act prior to the effective date of regulations by the
Interstate Commerce Commission dealing with the subject. Nor was
pendency before the Interstate Commerce Commission of an application
under the Motor Carrier Act for a license to operate a motor carrier in
interstate commerce found to supersede as to the applicant the authority
of a State to enforce "reasonable regulations" of traffic upon its
highways. "In the absence of the exercise of federal authority," said
the Court, "and in the light of local exigencies, the State is free to
act in order to protect its legitimate interests even though interstate
commerce is directly affected."[831] And for the same reason New York
City was entitled to apply to trucks engaged in the delivery of goods
from New Jersey a traffic regulation forbidding the operation on the
streets of an advertising vehicle.[832] Said Justice Douglas for the
Court: "Many of these trucks are engaged in delivering goods in
interstate commerce from New Jersey to New York. Where traffic control
and the use of highways are involved and where there is no conflicting
federal regulation, great leeway is allowed local authorities, even
though the local regulation materially interferes with interstate
commerce."[833] Also, the Court has consistently sustained State
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