Joseph McKenna

“ It says to all natural persons and to all transportation companies: 'You shall not bring into the state any Texas cattle, or any Mexican cattle, or Indian cattle, between March 1st and December 1st in any year, no matter whether they are free from disease or not, no matter whether they may do an injury to the inhabitants of the state or not; and if you do bring them in, even for the purpose of carrying them through the state without unloading them, you shall be subject to extraordinary liabilities.' Such a statute, we do not doubt, is beyond the power of a state to enact. ”

“ It is sufficient to say of the finding of the court of civil appeals of Texas that, 'so far as the record shows, every animal of the kind prohibited in the state of Louisiana may have been actually affected with charbon or anthrax,' that there is no such finding in the report of the commission or in the governor's proclamation, and that, under the statute, there must be a finding either of disease or of a liability to communicate disease, to justify the action of the commission. ”

“ It seems to me that the proclamation goes far beyond the authority of the statute, beyond the necessities of the case, and is a wholly unjustifiable interference with interstate commerce. The statute thus construed puts a power into the hands of a sanitary commission which is liable to be greatly abused, and to be put forward as an excuse for keeping out of Texas perfectly healthy animals from other states, and putting a complete stop to a large trade. ”