Wiley Blount Rutledge

“ If therefore in any case a state may regulate foreign commerce, the facts here would seem clearly to justify Michigan's application of her civil rights act. It is far too late to maintain that the states possess no regulatory powers over such commerce. From the first meeting of Congress they have regulated important phases of both foreign and intes tate commerce, particularly in relation to transportation by water, with Congress' express consent. ”

“ Indeed the Cooley criterion has been applied so frequently in cases concerning only commerce among the several states that it is often forgotten that that historic decision dealt indiscriminately with such commerce and foreign commerce. [19]
Appellant hardly suggests that the power of Congress over foreign commerce excludes all regulation by the states. ”

“ We have therefore only to consider the single and narrow question whether the state courts correctly held that the commerce clause, Art. I, § 8, of the Federal Constitution does not forbid applying the Michigan civil rights act to sustain appellant's conviction. We agree with their determination.
There can be no doubt that appellant's transportation of its patrons is foreign commerce within the scope of Art. ”

“ None go from the island to the Canadian bank of the river. The only business conducted at the island is the operation of appellant's recreational and accessory facilities, which apparently do not include provision for overnight guests. No other persons than appellant's patrons come to the island, or have a right to come, from Canada's mainland or elsewhere, or go from the island to Detroit. ”

“ In conducting this business of amusement and transportation, appellant long has followed the policy, by advertisement and otherwise, to invite and encourage all comers, except two classes. One is the disorderly; the other, colored people. [5] From the latter exclusion this case arises.
In June of 1945 Sarah Elizabeth Ray, the complaining witness, was employed by the Detroit Ordnance District. She and some forty other girls were also members of a class conducted at the Commerce High School under the auspices of the ordnance district. ”

“ It is unthinkable to me that we would strike down a state law which required all carriers-local and interstate-to transport all persons regardless of their race or color. The common-law duty ofc arriers was to provide equal service to all, a duty which the Court has held a State may require of interstate carriers in the absence of a conflicting federal law. ”

“ Appellant owns almost all of Bois Blanc in fee. [1] For many years it has operated the island, during the summer seasons, as a place of diverse amusements for Detroit's varied population. Appellant also owns and operates two steamships for transporting its patrons of the island's attractions from Detroit to Bois Blanc and return. The vessels engage in no other business on these trips. [2] No freight, mail or express is carried; the only passengers are the patrons bent on pleasure, who board ship at Detroit ”

“ The record indicates there are no established means of access from the Canadian shore to the island. There is no evidence of even surreptitious entry trom the Canadian mainland. Appellant's vessels not only are the sole meas of transportation to and from the island, but carry only its own patrons of Bois Blanc's recreational facilities. These travel exclusively on round-trip tickets for passage beginning and ending on American soil. They are principally residents of Detroit and vicinity. ”

“ Virginia, 328 U.S. 373, 382, n. 24, 66 S.Ct. 1050, 1056, 90 L.Ed. 1317, 165 A.L.R. 574.↑ Appellant urged that it was not a common carrier, a public utility, or a 'public conveyance' within the specific terms of § 146. The state supreme court said: 'There is no escape from the conclusion that defendant herein is engaged in the business of operating 'public conveyances' by water, and the Michigan statute provides: 'All persons within the jurisdiction of this state shall be entitled to full and equal accommodations' afforded by such conveyances. ”

“ And without such consent for nearly a hundred years they have exercised like power under the local diversity branch of the formula announced in Cooley v. Board of Wardens, 12 How. 299, 13 L.Ed. 996. [18] See Union Brokerage Co. ”