Law Commons^™

Delaware & Hudson Revisited, John C. Nagle

Journal Articles

Four score and eight years ago, the Supreme Court decided United States v. Delaware & Hudson Co., a little remembered case holding that a federal statute prohibited railroads from shipping coal that they own across state lines. The statute at issue seemed to bar any railroad company from transporting any article that it had produced, but a group of Pennsylvania railroads objected that the statute violated numerous provisions of the Constitution. The Court dodged those constitutional questions by reading the Act narrowly to apply only if the railroad still owned the coal at the time of shipment. Justice Edward White …