Rufus Wheeler Peckham

“ It has been urged that, assuming Congress to have the power to fix interstate rates, if that body should prescribe the interstate rate for the transportation of commodities (tobacco, for instance) from Nashville to Louisville, for a railroad carrier, that the state might then fix the local rates by that standard, and if so, why could it not do the same thing when the carrier itself fixes its interstate rate? In the case supposed, the rate is fixed and the interstate commerce regulated by the body which has the power to impose such rate on the carrier and to regulate its interstate commerce. ”

“ It seems also to be thought that there is no regulation of commerce, provided it is not interfered with or regulated in all ways by which transportation of commodities between interstate localities may be accomplished, that if the commodity (tobacco in this case) can be transported by any other means or route, or by any other individual or corporation, than the one affected by the regulation, commerce is not regulated within the constitutional meaning. ”

“ On the contrary, it seems quite clear that any law which in its direct result regulates the interstate transportation of a single individual carrier, or company of carriers, violates the provision in question; that it is no answer to say the commodity can still be transported by another carrier or by water instead or rail, so long as the direct effect of the state legislation is to regulate the transportation of the commodity by a particular means, by rail instead of by water, or by a particular individual or company. ”