Felix Frankfurter

“ Under the Natural Gas Act the prices to be paid for natural gas sold wholesale in interstate commerce must be in accordance with the rates filed with the Federal Power Commission. Since the suits instituted by Cities Service involve rates so filed, they must either be to enforce a filed rate or to challenge a filed rate. ”

“ Cities Service purchases natural gas from petitioners and transports it through its pipelines, in interstate commerce, for sale to local distributing companies. During the period 1949-1951 Cities Service entered into contracts for the purchase of natural gas produced by petitioners from the Hugoton field in Kansas. ”

“ To reach the underlying law we do not travel back so far. By unimpeachable authority, a suit brought upon a state statute does not arise under an act of Congress or the Constitution of the United States because prohibited thereby. ”

“ Russell & Co. (288 U.S. 476, 53 S.Ct. 447, 77 L.Ed. 903) , supra: 'The federal nature of the right to be established is decisive-not the source of the authority to establish it.' Here the right to be established is one created by the state. If that is so, it is unimportant that federal consent is the source of state authority. ”

“ Their operative paragraphs demand recovery on alleged contracts to refund overpayments in the event of a judicial finding that the Kansas minimum-rate order was invalid, or for restitution of the overpayments by which petitioners have allegedly been unjustly enriched under the compulsion of the invalid Kansas order. No right is asserted under the Natural Gas Act. ”