Edward Douglass White

“ The fundamental fallacy of this argument is that it misunderstands the nature of the Constitution, undervalues its usefulness, and forgets that its unchanging provisions are adaptable to the infinite variety of the changing conditions of our national life. Surely, there is no statute of limitations which bars Congress from the exercise of any of its granted powers, nor any authority, save that of the people whom it represents, which may, with propriety, challenge the wisdom of its choice of the time when remedies shall first be applied to what it deems wrong. ”

“ There is no doubt that the rule exists, there is no doubt that it is wise, and promotes the mutual respect between the different branches of the government which is so essential to the welfare of all, and that it requires us, if it is within our power, to give to the words of the statute before us a meaning which will confine its provisions to subjects within the control of Congress. ”

“ In separating carriers from those engaged in other interstate and foreign commerce, Congress has but followed the ancient classification of the common law, based upon reasons so obvious that they need no statement. Whether the law should be made to apply to all carriers or to carriers by railroad alone, or whether the employees should be classified according to the degree of danger which surrounds their employment, is a matter of legislative discretion with which we have no right to meddle. ”

“ Does not a proper respect for the acts of Congress and the strong presumption that it will not exceed its powers, so frequently declared by this court, require us to believe that, when the kinds of commerce within its undoubted control are carefully enumerated, all the words of the law, however general, are to be referred solely to that commerce and no other? ”

“ On the contrary, the test of power is not merely the matter regulated, but whether the regulation is directly one of interstate commerce, or is embraced within the grant conferred on Congress to use all lawful means necessary and appropriate to the execution of the power to regulate commerce. We think the unsoundness of the contention that, because the act regulates the relation of master and servant, it is unconstitutional, because, under no circumstances, and to no extent, can the regulation of such subject be within the grant of authority to regulate commerce, is demonstrable. ”

“ It is the power to regulate; that is, to prescribe the rule by which commerce is to be governed. This power, like all others vested in Congress, is complete in itself, may be exercised to its utmost extent, and acknowledges no limitations other than are prescribed in the Constitution. ”

“ I think, therefore, that we may consider whether this act finds authority in the commerce clause of the Constitution without embarrassment from any inferences which may be drawn from the inaction of Congress.
It is settled beyond the necessity of citing cases that the transportation of persons and property is commerce; in other words, that the business of carriers is commerce. Where, therefore, the business is foreign or interstate, Congress, it has frequently been decided, has the paramount, if not the sole, power to legislate for its direct control. ”

“ But where the judgment is a judicial condemnation of an act of a coordinate branch of our government, it is so grave a step that no member of the court can escape his own responsibility, or be justified in suppressing his own views, if unhappily they have not found expression in those of his associates. ”

“ It can be made decisive only by begging the very question to be determined, and, in the words of Mr. Justice Brewer, confusing 'the two entirely distinct matters of construction and validity.' It merely expresses the judicial duty which arises after the question of construction is determined. A critical examination of the cases shows that in each of them, in the opinion of the court, the language of the statute admitted of no possible interpretation, except that Congress intended to deal, by a single and inseparable provision, with subjects without as well as subjects within its control. ”

“ If such be the necessary interpretation of the statute, plainly it exceeds the power of Congress, for Congress certainly has no right to tegulate the purely internal commerce of a state. Nor can the statute be saved by rejecting that part of it which is unconstitutional, because its provisions are single and incapable of separation. The vicious part, if such exist, is so intermingled with that which is good that it cannot be eliminated without destroying the whole structure. ”

“ But the statesmen of that time, confident of the future, and hopeful that they might devise a government which would endure, must have understood that the commerce which concerned more than one state, from its essential nature, was in part outside the territorial jurisdiction of any state, could not be governed efficiently by a single state, and, if left outside of the national control, would be subject to woeful embarrassment by the conflicting regulations of the several states into which it entered. ”

“ The habit of our people, accentuated by our system of representative government, is not so much in legislation to anticipate problems as it is to deal with them after experience has shown them to exist. So Congress has exercised its power sparingly, step by step, and has acted only when experience seemed to it to require action. ”

“ Much of the law of common carriers, whether created by decisions of the courts or by acts of legislatures, has been based upon or influenced by the theory that the nature of the liabilities imposed upon the carriers directly affects the care, diligence, and safety with which they conduct their business. For instance, one consideration which has influenced the courts in the judicial development of the fellow-servant doctrine is that, by imposing upon the employee the risk of the carelessness of the men with whom he works, a greater degree of care and therefore of safety would result. ”

“ There is nothing in the words of the grant that permits the belief that the power is not coextensive over foreign, interstate, and Indian trade, or is anything less than the whole power which any government may properly exercise over either, though it may well be that the restrictive parts of the Constitution, its prohibitions and reservations, may operate differently on different kinds of commerce, or even on different aspects of the same kind of commerce. ”

“ If Congress can create a liability to an injured employee for the existence of conditions in certain mechanisms which he uses, by declaring those conditions unlawful, it may create the same liability for negligence of the agents and imperfections in the instruments used in the carrier's work; if it may change the common-law rule of the assumption of the risk of imperfect appliances, it may change the rule of the assumption of the risk of a careless fellow servant. ”

“ Interstate commerce by land, once so slight as to be unworthy of the attention of the national legislature, has come to be the most important part of all trade, and it is not too much to say that the daily needs of the factory and the household are no longer dependent upon the resources of the locality, but are largely supplied by the products of other states. ”

“ It cannot be doubted that the exercise of a power for the first time may be called upon to justify itself. The fact that it is for the first time is a circumstance to be considered. But in this case it is a circumstance whose significance disappears in the light of history. ”

“ The words 'any person or persons' are broad enough to comprehend every human being. But general words must not only be limited to cases within the jurisdiction of the state, but also to those objects to which the legislature intended to apply them.' in the latter case it was held that an act that forbade all persons from assisting the migration into to the United States of 'any alien or aliens, any foreigner or foreigners,' under contract 'to perform labor or services of any kind,' did not include a minister of religion, though such a person was within the letter of the statute. ”

“ While it may be, if we indulged, for the sake of argument, in the hypothesis of limited power upon which the second proposition rests, it would result that a consideration of the first proposition would be unnecessary because the act would be found to be repugnant to the Constitution, because embracing provisions beyond such assumed and restricted authority, we do not think we are at liberty to avoid deciding whether, in any possible aspect, the subject to which the act relates is within the power of Congress. ”

“ The proposition that there is an absolute want of power in Congress to enact the statute is based on the assumption that, as the statute is solely addressed to the regulation of the relations of the employer to those whom he employs, and the relation of those employed by him among themselves, it deals with subjects which cannot, under any circumstances, come within the power conferred upon Congress to regulate commerce. ”

“ There is no necessity in this case to disturb the troublesome question when, if ever, even where Congress is silent, the states may exercise any direct power over interstate and foreign commerce. For the power hitherto exercised by the states over this particular subject has never been deemed to be a regulation of commerce, but rather an exercise of their authority to regulate generally the relations of men to each other, which may indirectly affect such commerce. ”

“ This seems to have been feared by counsel for one of the defendants, who, in his brief, said 'that the giving of a right of recovery to an injured employee is a proper and necessary method for making effective the safety appliance act . . . we do not admit.'
But, if we put aside the authority of precedents, and examine the nature and extent of the grant to Congress of power over commerce in the light of the settled principles of interpretation fit to be applied to the exposition of a constitution, we shall arrive at the same result. ”

“ It is not easy to believe that Congress intended to dispute their authority. The reasoning which was thought worthy for the interpretation of the Constitution will not be misapplied if it be employed in the interpretation of a law passed in pursuance of the powers conferred by the Constitution. Why should it not be said of the law as it was said of the Constitution, that 'the enumeration of the particular classes of commerce to which the power was to be extended would not have been made had the intention been to extend the power to every description. ”

“ It would seem, therefore, that when persons are employed in interstate or foreign commerce, as the employment is an essential part of that commerce, its terms and conditions, and the rights and duties which grow out of it, are under the control of Congress, subject only to the limits on the exercise of that control prescribed in the Constitution. ”

“ The common law allowed no recovery against the employer for the neglect of a fellow servant engaged in a common employment; by the statute the employer is held responsible for the negligence of any of its officers, agents, or employees, even though the guilty person is a fellow servant of him who is injured or killed. The common law denied to one who, by his negligence, had contributed to his own injury, the right to a remedy for the neglect of another which had been a concurring cause ”

“ Without stopping to consider the numerous instances where, although a common carrier is engaged in interstate commerce, such carrier may, in the nature of things, also transact business not interstate commerce, although such local business may indirectly be related to interstate commerce, a few illustrations showing the operation of the statute as to matters wholly independent of interstate commerce will serve to make clear the extent of the power which is exerted by the statute. Take a railroad engaged in interstate commerce, having a purely local branch operated wholly within a state. ”

“ If its main purpose be to establish a regulation applicable to all trade, to Commerce at all points, especially if it is apparent that it is designed to govern the commerce wholly between citizens of the same state, it is obviously the exercise of a power not confided to Congress.' No words could be more happily chosen than these, to describe exactly what the statute in the case at bar is not. ”

“ They are binding upon succeeding judges, but, while they may influence, they cannot control, legislators. Legislators have their own economic theories, their own views of justice and public policy; and their views, when embodied in a written law, must prevail. Whenever the legislative power to change any of these rules of the common law has been drawn in question in this court it had been sustained. Various state statutes allowing a remedy against a railroad employer for the negligence of a fellow servant have been held to be within the legislative power. ”

“ This result arises from the different relations to the community the subject may sustain; a drove of cattle may be at once interstate freight and the vehicle by which infectious disease may be brought within the borders of a state; a bridge may, at the same time, interrupt the navigation of the river, and serve as a continuation of the highways of the state; a man, while the agent through which the transaction of interstate commerce is conducted, is, at the same time, one of the population, permanent or transient, of a state, and subject to its general laws. ”

“ Every possible presumption is in favor of the validity of a statute, and this continues until the contrary is shown beyond a rational doubt. One branch of the government cannot encroach on the domain of another without danger. ”