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
History
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
In the above cases the State prohibition overturned was directed
specifically to shipments beyond the State. In two other cases the State
enactments involved reached all commerce, both domestic and interstate
without discrimination. In the first of these, Sligh _v._ Kirkwood,[962]
the Court upheld the application to oranges which were intended for the
interstate market of a Florida statute prohibiting the sale, shipment,
or delivery for shipment of any citrus fruits which were immature or
otherwise unfit for consumption. The burden thus imposed upon interstate
commerce was held by the Court to be incidental merely to the effective
enforcement of a measure intended to safeguard the health of the people
of Florida. Moreover, said the Court, "we may take judicial notice of
the fact that the raising of citrus fruits is one of the great
industries of the State of Florida. It was competent for the
legislature to find that it was essential for the success of that
industry that its reputation be preserved in other States wherein such
fruits find their most extensive market."[963] In Lemke _v._ Farmers
Grain Co.,[964] on the other hand, a North Dakota statute which confined
the purchase of grain within that State to those holding licenses from
the State and which regulated prices, was pronounced void under the
commerce clause. To the argument that such legislation was "in the
interest of the grain growers and essential to protect them from
fraudulent purchases, and to secure payment to them of fair prices for
the grain actually sold," the Court answered that, "Congress is amply
authorized to pass measures to protect interstate commerce if
legislation of that character is needed."
The differentiation of the above two cases is twofold. The statute under
review in the earlier one was of the ordinary type of inspection law and
was applied without discrimination to fruits designed for the home and
the interstate market. The North Dakota act was far more drastic,
approximating an attempt on the part of the State to license interstate
commerce. What is even more important, however, the later case
represents a new rule of law, and one which at the time the Florida act
was before the Court had not yet been heard of. This is embodied in the
head note of the case in the following words: "The business of buying
grain in North Dakota, practically all of which is intended for shipment
to, and sale at, terminal markets in other States, conformably to the
usual and general course of business in the grain trade, is interstate
commerce."[965] The application of this rule in the field of state
taxation was mentioned on a previous page.[966]
STATE CONSERVATION AND EMBARGO MEASURES: THE MILK CASES
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