Law Commons^™

Noontime Dumping: Why States Have Broad Discretion To Regulate Onboard Treatments Of Ballast Water, Kyle H. Landis-Marinello

Michigan Law Review

Ballast water discharges from shipping vessels are responsible for spreading numerous forms of aquatic invasive species, a form of biological pollution that leads to billions of dollars in annual costs. In the wake of inaction from the federal government and inaction from the shipping industry, several Great Lakes states are currently considering legislation to address the problem. Michigan has already passed a law to prevent ballast water introductions of invasive species. As states begin to regulate ballast water discharges from oceangoing vessels, such laws will likely face challenges based on the constitutional principles of the Dormant Commerce Clause and the …

Untangling The Market-Participant Exemption To The Dormant Commerce Clause, Dan T. Coenen

Michigan Law Review

This article explores the market-participant rule. Part I traces the rule's evolution and shows how it has proven less rigid than some initially feared. Part II probes the roots of the rule by challenging justifications for it suggested by other observers. Part III offers an alternative theory of the market-participant doctrine, arguing in particular that it rests on a cluster of rationales that properly have led· the Court to uphold marketplace preferences as the "general rule." Part IV builds on Part III to advance a new, four-part framework for evaluating market-participant issues. Part V then uses that framework to apply …

Second Generation State Takeover Legislation: Maryland Takes A New Tack, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines the approach recently adopted by the Maryland legislature in special session one year after the Supreme Court's decision in MITE. Maryland has departed radically from the regulatory approach of first generation statutes; however, this Note argues that the statute has failed to escape the constitutional infirmities of its predecessors. Part I outlines the various mechanisms that regulate acquisition of corporate control: the federal tender offer regulatory mechanism known as the Williams Act, state takeover legislation such as the Illinois statute invalidated in MITE, and the new Maryland statute. Part II analyzes the debate concerning the …

Constitutional Law - Commerce Clause - Local Smoke Control Ordinance Not An Undue Burden On Interstate Commerce, John M. Niehuss

Michigan Law Review

In accordance with a scheme of federal ship inspection, appellant possessed certificates which permitted its ships to operate on the Great Lakes and which specified the type of boiler which might be used. While two of its ships were docked in Detroit, smoke was emitted from their boilers in violation of the minimum density and duration requirements of the Detroit Smoke Abatement Code. The equipment which appellant was then using made compliance with the ordinance impossible. When criminal proceedings were instituted against appellant, it brought an action to enjoin the City of Detroit from enforcing the ordinance on the theory …

Labor Law-State Regulation Of Recognition And Organizational Picketing, Richard D. Rohr S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Just as the fixed circumference of spheres of influence tends to reduce clash and friction in world affairs, so peaceful industrial relations are fostered by definite legal rules of conduct. Recent litigation, both by its amount and variety of result, testifies to a continued uncertainty as to the permissible scope of peaceful, primary picketing. The major problems may be subsumed under the loose category of "stranger picketing," but a distinction of some legal significance has developed within this category between picketing by the non-representative union for recognition by the employer and picketing for organizational purposes, that is, to win the …

Labor Law--Federal-State Relations--Validity Of Michigan's Labor Mediation Act, R. L. Storms S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff labor union called a strike against defendant auto corporation in May, 1948, without conforming to the prescribed state procedure. The purpose of the strike was to enforce demands for higher wages and the strike was conducted peacefully. To enjoin possible criminal prosecution the union instituted the instant suit in the state courts, contending that the Michigan labor mediation law, the much publicized "Bonine-Tripp Act," violated the due process and commerce clauses of the Federal Constitution. The Michigan Supreme Court reversed the decision of the trial court which had granted the injunction. On appeal, held, reversed. Congress has occupied …

Labor Law-Relationship Of Federal And State Authority Over Labor Relations, Ralph E. Hunt S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In three recent cases, the United States Supreme Court has been required to determine the impact of federal labor relations legislation on certain state enactments in this area. The importance of these decisions, concerning a problem which has caused difficulty since enactment of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, is increased by their consideration of the significance of the amendments contained in the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947.

(1.) The appellant La Crosse Co., which handled interstate telephone calls, had made a collective bargaining agreement with appellant A. F. of L. union, to continue from year to year. During …

Courts-Jurisdiction-Constitutionality Of Statute Establishing Jurisdiction Over Nonresident Conducting Business In State Through Resident Agent, David D. Ring

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a resident of Utah, sued petitioner, a resident of California, to recover construction costs and contractor's fee for the erection of a building at petitioner's Utah place of business. In accordance with a statute of Utah providing that jurisdiction over a nonresident individual doing business in the state could be obtained in all actions arising out of the conduct of the business by serving process on the resident agent managing the business, summons was served on the petitioner's Utah manager. Petitioner appeared specially and moved to quash the summons for lack of jurisdiction, which motion was denied. He then …

Constitutional Law - Privileges And Immunities - Commerce Clause-Proprietary Interest Of State In Its Natural Resources, Charles D. Bell

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, residents of Georgia, sued to enjoin the enforcement of a South Carolina statute imposing on shrimp boats a license fee one-hundred times greater for nonresident owners than for resident owners, and requiring all shrimp to be unloaded, packed, and stamped in South Carolina before shipments into other states. The suit was based on the alleged contravention of the privileges and immunities and commerce clauses of the Constitution of the United States. Plaintiff's petition was dismissed by the trial court. On appeal, held, reversed. The disparity in resident and nonresident license fees constituted discrimination against nonresidents in violation of …

Constitutional Law-A Federal Commercial Code-Some Possibilities Under The Constitution, Merrill N. Johnson

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this comment to examine various possibilities of federal action which would help to bring about unification, simplification and clarification in the field of commercial law. The term "commercial law" has no commonly accepted connotation; it is taken here to ·include the law of transfers of personal property by commercial methods, of negotiable instruments, of chattel securities, of agency and of business associations; in short, all those fields of law which a Continental lawyer would term "private commercial law."

Foreign Corporations-What Constitutes "Doing Business" For Service Of Process As Contrasted With Domestication Requirement, Kenneth Liles

Michigan Law Review

South Carolina commenced suit against the Ford Motor Company by serving summons upon the South Carolina secretary of state pursuant to statute applicable when no process agent had been appointed, seeking to recover penalties imposed upon this foreign corporation for doing business in the state without having complied with the domestication statutes. Defendant claimed it was not doing business in the state because it had no property or agents therein, its products being handled by private dealers. The company attacked both the summons as against due process and the domestication statutes as a burden on interstate commerce. From judgment for …

Corporations - Foreign Corporations - Effect Of Complying With Domestication Statute, E. George Rudolph

Michigan Law Review

Decedent was a resident of Nebraska and all his property was located there. By his will he left the residue of his estate to a number of charitable institutions including the Topeka Branch of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a corporation incorporated in Kansas. The Topeka Branch claimed exemption from the Nebraska inheritance tax because it was a domestic charitable corporation, having complied with the Nebraska statute providing, "Any corporation organized under the laws of any other state . . . which has filed . . . with the secretary of state of this state, …

Constitutional Law - State Proration Acts - Regulation Of Production When Sales Are Largely Interstate, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff, a raisin packer in the state of California, was prevented from purchasing in open market to fill his out-of-state orders because of the California Agricultural Proration Act. By its provisions the producers of raisin grapes are required to turn over seventy per cent of their produce to state "pools." The remaining thirty per cent may be sold without restriction, providing the producer holds certificates issued by a commission. Packers are permitted to purchase only from such certificate holders. These packers operate within California, buying from producers and selling to jobbers, wholesalers, brokers, etc., for resale to the public. …

Constitutional Law - Twenty-First Amendment - Validity Of State Statute Discriminating Against Liquor Imports, Benjamin Guille Cox

Michigan Law Review

A Michigan statute prohibited local dealers from selling beer manufactured in a state designated by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, acting pursuant to statutory standards, as one which by its laws discriminated against Michigan-made beer. Because Indiana was one of ten states so designated, an Indiana brewing company filed a bill in the federal court to enjoin enforcement of the Michigan statute as unconstitutional under the interstate commerce, equal protection and due process clauses of the Federal Constitution. Held, that the bill should be dismissed, since the statute, even though discriminating among importers, was a valid enactment under the …

Corporations-Foreign Corporations-Entrance Fees-Constitutionality, Charles E. Nadeau

Michigan Law Review

A Virginia statute, providing that foreign corporations desiring to carry on intrastate business there must pay an entrance fee graduated according to authorized capital stock, imposed on plaintiff a fee of $5,000. Only two-thirds of plaintiff's authorized stock was issued. A considerable amount of its assets were used in interstate commerce, though the sum invested in Virginia was negligible. Plaintiff contended that such an entrance fee burdened interstate commerce because measured by property used in interstate commerce, that it denied due process because measured by property without the state, and that it denied equal protection of the laws becaused measured …

Police Power - Validity Of A State Statute Fixing Maximum Charges For Tobacco Warehousemen, Peter S. Boter

Michigan Law Review

A statute of the state of Georgia prescribed maximum charges for handling and selling leaf tobacco. In this action, warehousemen sought to restrain the enforcement of the act, attacking it as an arbitrary exercise of state power contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and also as placing a substantial burden on interstate commerce in violation of the commerce clause. Held, that the statute was a constitutional exercise of the state's police power. Townsend v. Yeomans, (U.S. 1937) 81 L. Ed. 840.

Constitutional Law --Twenty-First Amendment And Its Effect On The Commerce Clause And Equal Protection Clause As Applied To Liquor, William Stout Gordon

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs were granted an injunction in the lower court restraining the enforcement of the California Alcoholic Beverage Control Act on the ground that it violated the commerce clause and the equal protection clause of the Federal Constitution. The act imposed a license fee of $500 for the privilege of importing beer, in addition to the $50 fee to be paid by all wholesalers for the privilege of selling the beer. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision and held that the Twenty-first Amendment withdrew the protection of the commerce clause from liquor and that there was no denial of …

State "Blue-Sky" Laws And The Federal Securities Acts, Russell A. Smith

Michigan Law Review

With the current revival of business has come increased activity in the securities markets. Corporations are taking advantage of low money rates to refund outstanding issues and, to some extent, to obtain new money for corporate purposes. If the upturn in business proves to be substantial, rather than merely a temporary, government-induced short-time swing, the issuance of securities for the purpose of financing capital improvements will doubtless accelerate. Questions arising under the various laws, federal and state, for the regulation of the sale of securities will become increasingly important. Persons interested in the issuance and disposal of securities desire, of …

Constitutional Law - Franchise Tax - Burden Upon Interstate And Foreign Commerce - Due Process - Equal Protection Of The Laws

Michigan Law Review

The state of California adopted a franchise tax which was based upon the corporations' net income apportioned according to "that portion which is derived from business done within the State." When this was construed to include not merely the income from intrastate business alone, but rather the income from both this and from all interstate and foreign business attributable to California, its enforcement was resisted upon the grounds that (1) so construed it was repugnant to the commerce clause upon the theory that it burdened interstate and foreign commerce, (2) it violated the due process clause upon the theory that …

Public Utilities - Holding Companies - Power Of State Commission To Regulate Intercorporate Charges

Michigan Law Review

The Public Service Commission of Kansas issued an order directing nine local gas companies to cease setting up as an item of operating expense more than a certain amount for gas being furnished the companies by an interstate pipe line company. The nine distributing companies and the pipe line company, all of which were affiliated companies within the meaning of a Kansas statute and ultimately controlled by the same holding company, secured an injunction in the three-judge federal court, and the commission appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Held, that the injunction should not have been granted. State …

The State's Power Over Foreign Corporations, Harold M. Bowman

Michigan Law Review

This paper is devoted to a consideration of certain phases of our constitutional law governing the authority of the states over foreign corporations as that authority developed between the end of the fourth decade of the last century and the end of the first decade of this, and as it has been altered by a remarkable group of decisions rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States only about a year ago. The subject is one which concerns the frame of our institutions, for the final view which the Court shall take upon the questions involved in this matter …

Commercial Aspect Of Uniform State Laws, Francis B. James

Michigan Law Review

A T the close of the American Revolution and even after the adoption of the articles of Confederation, each American State was not only a political unit but an industrial and commercial unit. Meafis of communication were few and cost of transportation almost prohibitive except in border and coast cities. Each State not only determined its political future but its own industrial and commercial policy. The Constitution of the United States, adopted in 1789, recognized the fact that each State continued as a political unit and at the same time created another political unit, the nation at large. It also …

The Interstate Commerce Clause And State Control Of Foreign Corporations, Frank E. Robson

Michigan Law Review

The Congress shall have power * * * to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes." "* * * to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or any department or officer thereof." Only one possessed of prophetic vision would dare to state the extent of the power contained in these clauses of the constitution, to say nothing of the subjects or persons to which it may be …