Bob-Lo Excursion Company v. Michigan/Dissent Jackson

by Wiley Blount Rutledge

United States Supreme Court

333 U.S. 28

Bob-Lo Excursion Company  v.  Michigan

 Argued: Dec. 16, 17, 1947. --- Decided: Feb 2, 1948

Mr. Justice JACKSON, with whom The CHIEF JUSTICE agrees, dissenting.

This Michigan statute undoubtedly is valid when applied to Michigan intrastate commerce, just as a Congressional enactment of like tenor would undoubtedly be valid as to commerce among the states and with foreign countries. The question here, however, is whether the Michigan statute can validly be applied to that commerce which is set apart by the Constitution for regulation by the Congress.

The sphere of a state's power has not been thought to expand or contract because of the policy embodied in a particular regulation. A state statute requiring equality of accommodations for white and Negro passengers was held invalid as applied to interstate commerce. Hall v. DeCuir, 95 U.S. 485, 24 L.Ed. 547. On the sm e principle a state statute requiring segregation was held invalid as applied to interstate commerce. Morgan v. Virginia, 328 U.S. 373, 66 S.Ct. 1050, 90 L.Ed. 1317, 165 A.L.R. 574. Heretofore the Court steadily has held that the failure of Congress to enact a law on this specific subject does not operate to expose interstate commerce to the burden of local rules, no matter what policy in this highly controversial matter a state sought to advance. It would seem to me that the constitutional principles which have been so apparent to the Court that it would not permit local policies to burden national commerce, are even more obvious in relation to foreign commerce.

Certainly if any state can enforce regulations concerning embarkation and landing, it can in effect control much that pertains to the foreign journey. To determine what persons and commodities shall be taken abroad is to control what persons and commodities may become the subject of foreign commerce, and that is to control the lifeblood of the commerce itself. These are identical with matters in which this commerce is subject to control by federal and foreign governments. The Federal Government takes active control of the inbound movement of goods by virtue of its customs service and of the movement of persons by virtue of its immigration service across these boundaries. The Canadian government does the same on the outbound crossing of the international line. It does so in this case, and it does so even if the bulk of the travelers do not go very far or stay very long and are merely amusement bent.

The wholesome and amiable situation detailed in the Court's opinion is made possible only by international relations wholly controlled by the Federal Government. It alone can effectively protect or foster this kind of commerce, and it alone should be allowed to burden it. If we are to concede this power over foreign commerce to one state, it would seem that it could logically be claimed by every state which has a port, border, or landing field used by foreign commerce.

The Court admits that the commerce involved in this case is foreign commerce, but subjects it to the state police power on the ground that it is not very foreign. It fails to lay down any standard by which we can judge when foreign commerce is foreign enough to become free of local regulation. The commerce involved here is not distinguishable from a great deal of the traffic across our Canadian and Mexican borders, except perhaps in volume. Communities have sprung up on either side, whose social and economic relations are interdependent, but are conducted with scrupulous regard for the international boundary. Localities on either side of the line may develop in reliance on a certain reciprocity and stability of policy which has characterized two nations for years, when they cannot rely on similar stability or farsightedness in local policy.

It seems to me no adequate protection of foreign commerce from a multitude and diversity of burdening and capricious local regulations that this Court may stand ready, as in this case, to apply itself to an analysis of the traffic involved and determine in each case whether the local interest in it is sufficiently strong and the foreign element is sufficiently weak so that we will permit the regulation to stand. We do not and apparently cannot enunciate any legal criteria by which those who engage in foreign commerce can predict which classification we will impose upon any particular operation and we lay down no rule other than our passing impression to guide ourselves or our successors. All is left to case-by-case conjecture. The commerce clause was intended to promote commerce rather than litigation.

I believe that once it is conceded, as it is in this case, that the commerce involved is foreign commerce, that fact alone should be enough to prevent a state from controlling what may, or what must, move in the stream of that commerce.

Notes