Pierce Butler

“ Shrimp are taken by nets dragged by power boats, and are then put on larger vessels and transported to Biloxi. To prepare the meat for canning, the heads and hulls are picked off; most of them are thrown into the water where they are consumed by scavengers of the sea. But some are made into 'shrimp bran,' which is used to a small extent in the manufacture of commercial fertilizer.
The act declares all shrimp and parts thereof in Louisiana waters to be the property of the state, and regulates their taking and reduction to private ownership. ”

“ About 95 per cent. of the shrimp obtained from the waters of Louisiana, when taken, is intended for consumption outside the state. Some shrimp bran is made from the hulls and heads in Louisiana; but all of it is shipped to Biloxi, where it is used to make fertilizer. It is worth less than 1 per cent. of the value of the shrimp. Not more than half the hulls and heads removed in Louisiana is used for any purpose. They have no market value, cannot be sold or given away, and often constitute a nuisance. ”

“ It shall be unlawful to export from the state of Louisiana any raw shells or hulls and heads of salt water shrimp as they are required to be manufactured into fertilizer or used for an element in chicken feed. When the shrimp hulls or shells and heads shall have been conserved for the purposes herein stated, the right of property therein theretofore existing in the state shall pass to the lawful taker or the possessor thereof. ”

“ That the right to take salt water shrimp from the waters of this state and the right to can, pack or dry the said shrimp when caught are hereby granted to any resident of this state, to any firm or association composed of residents of this state, or to any corporation domiciled in or organized under the laws of this state, operating a canning or packing factory or drying platform in this state. These rights shall be confined to such persons and corporations and are granted subject to the further conditions hereinafter stipulated. ”

“ They support plaintiffs' contention that the purpose of the enactment is to prevent the interstate movement of raw shrimp from the Louisiana marshes to the plants at Biloxi in order through commercial necessity to bring about the removal of the packing and canning industries from Mississippi to Louisiana. The conditions imposed by the act upon the interstate movement of the meat and other products of shrimp are not intended and do not operate to conserve them for the use of the people of the state. ”

“ Any person, firm or corporation of this state who shall lawfully take any shrimp from any of the waters of the state, or lawfully acquire the same, shall have a qualified interest or property in the shrimp so taken or acquired in the shells, which qualified interest may be sold or transferred to any other person, firm or corporation within the limits of the state ”

“ A state is without power to prevent privately owned articles of trade from being shipped and sold in interstate commerce on the ground that they are required to satisfy local demands or because they are needed by the people of the state. Penna. v. West Virginia, 262 U.S. 553, 596, 43 S.C.t. 658, 67 L. Ed. 1117, 32 A. L. R. 300; Oklahoma v. Kansas Nat. Gas Co., 221 U.S. 229, 255, 31 S.C.t. 564, 55 L. Ed. 716, 35 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1193.
The authority of the state to regulate and control the common property in game is well established. ”

“ The case has not been tried and the sole question is whether, having regard to the particular facts and circumstances, the lower court's refusal to grant a temporary injunction was contrary to some rule of equity or the result of improvident exercise of judicial discretion. ”