interstate commerce
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 332 U.S. 218 - United States v. Yellow Cab Co. · 1947Most cited · 1,165 citing opinions
interstate commerce is an intensely practical concept drawn from the normal and accepted course of business
How the Supreme Court has restated “interstate commerce”
Each Supreme Court definition of “interstate commerce,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “interstate commerce”
Court decisions citing the 32 opinions that defined “interstate commerce” — 11,466 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 32 definitions, chronological · 1907–1965
- ORIGINAL
The right to send liquors from one state into another, and the act of sending the same, is interstate commerce, the regulation whereof has been committed by the Constitution of the United States to Congress, and, hence, that a state law which denies such a right, or substantially interferes with or hampers the same, is in conflict with the Constitution of the United States.
liquor shipment
The beginning and the ending of the transit which constitutes interstate commerce are easy to mark. The first is defined in Coe v. Errol, 116 U. S. 517, to be the point of time that an article is committed to a carrier for transportation to the state of its destination, or started on its ultimate passage. The latter is defined to be, in Brown v. Houston, 114 U. S. 622, the point of time at which it arrives at its destination.
beginning and ending of transit
Interstate commerce must be such as takes place between states, as differentiated from commerce wholly within a state. It must have reference to interstate trade or dealing; and if the regulation is not such, and comprehends only commerce which is internal, the state may legislate concerning it.
the words of the act, therefore, must be taken to mean that a carrier engaged in interstate commerce cannot charge, collect, or receive for transportation on its road anything but money.
carriers' rates must be paid in money
commerce among the states is not a technical legal conception, but a practical one, drawn from the course of business.
practical concept
The negotiation of sales of goods which are in another state, for the purpose of introducing them into the state in which the negotiation is made, is interstate commerce.
negotiation of sales
The conclusion of the district court was that, by the storage of coal, appellant obtained two beneficial results: First, cars arriving when no bottoms were on hand could be released and demurrage charges saved; second, when bottoms arrived and no cars were on hand containing the kinds of coal desired, such vessels could be loaded from the piles, resulting in a saving of time in the departure of such bottoms.
continuity not broken by storage
The business of erecting lightning rods under the circumstances disclosed was within the regulating power of the state, and not the subject of interstate commerce, for the following reasons: (a) Because the affixing of lightning rods to houses was the carrying on of a business of a strictly local character, peculiarly within the exclusive control of state authority. (b) Because, besides, such business was wholly separate from interstate commerce, involved no question of the delivery of property shipped in interstate commerce, or of the right to complete an interstate commerce transaction, but concerned merely the doing of a local act after interstate commerce had completely terminated. ... it was not within the power of the parties by the form of their contract to convert what was exclusively a local business, subject to state control, into an interstate commerce business, protected by the commerce clause.
local installation
That the transportation is commerce among the states we think clear. That conception cannot be made wholly dependent upon technical questions of title, and the fact that the oils transported belonged to the owner of the pipe line is not conclusive against the transportation being such commerce.
transportation by pipe line
The hauling of empty cars from one state to another is, in our opinion, interstate commerce within the meaning of the act.
hauling empty cars
Transportation between the ports of the state is not interstate commerce, excluded from the taxing power of the state, because as to a part of the journey the course is over the territory of another state.
transit through another state
Beer is a recognized article of commerce. The right to send it from one state to another and the act of doing so are interstate commerce the regulation whereof has been committed to Congress; and a state law which denies such right or substantially interferes with or hampers the same is in conflict with the Constitution of the United States. Transportation is not complete until delivery to the consignee or the expiration of a reasonable time therefor.
beer transportation
This court has repeatedly held that whether given commerce is of an interstate character or not is to be determined by what is actually done, and if the transportation is really and in fact between states, the mere arrangements of billing or plurality of carriers do not enter into the conclusion.
regulation by state
Commerce among the states is a practical, not a technical, conception. From the point of view of commerce, the business was one affair.
practical conception
- 1915·238 U.S. 456 - Pennsylvania Railroad Company v. Clark Brothers Coal Mining Company[p18]· cited 223×
In determining whether commerce is interstate or intrastate, regard must be had to its essential character. Mere billing, or the place at which title passes, is not determinative. If the actual movement is interstate, the power of Congress attaches to it and provisions of the act to regulate commerce, enacted for the purpose of preventing and redressing unjust discrimination by interstate carriers, whether in rates or facilities, apply.
essential character
It was being taken from one state to another, and this was the true test of whether it was moving in interstate commerce. That the engine was not in commercial use, but merely on the way to a repair shop, is immaterial.
movement of locomotive
Transportation of gas from one state to another is interstate commerce, and the sale and delivery of it to the local distributing companies is a part of such commerce.
The negotiation of sales of goods which are in another state, for the purpose of introducing them into the state in which the negotiation is made, is interstate commerce.
Buying for shipment, and shipping, to markets in other states, when conducted as before shown, constitutes interstate commerce; the buying being as much a part of it as the shipping
- 1926·270 U.S. 550 - People's Natural Gas Co v. Public Service Commission of Pennsylvania[p6]· cited 105×
gas continuously transported from the places of production in one state to those of consumption in the other, and promptly delivered to purchasers when it reaches the intended destinations, must be held to be in interstate commerce throughout these transactions; the passing of custody and title at the state boundary without arresting the movement to the destinations intended are minor details which do not affect the essential nature of the business
The transportation persons and property from one state to another is none the less interstate commerce because conducted by ferry
Interstate commerce includes more than transportation; it embraces all the component parts of commercial intercourse among states. And a state statute that operates directly to burden any of its essential elements is invalid.
Importation into one state from another is the indispensable element, the test, of interstate commerce; and every negotiation, contract, trade, and dealing between citizens of different states, which contemplates and causes such importation, whether it be of goods, persons, or information, is a transaction of interstate commerce
The gasoline, upon being unloaded and stored, ceased to be a subject of transportation in interstate commerce, and lost its immunity as such from state taxation.
storage break
when it comes to rest there, its intrastate journey, whether by truck or by rail, comes to an end, and, although in the ordinary course of business the cotton would ultimately reach points outside the state, its journey interstate does not begin, and so it does not become exempt from local tax until its shipment to points of destination outside the state
goods in transit
Interstate communication of a business nature, whatever the means of such communication, is interstate commerce regulable by Congress under the Constitution.
- 1937·302 U.S. 90 - Puget Sound Stevedoring Co v. Tax Commission of State of Washington[p8]· cited 252×
What is decisive is the nature of the act, not the person of the actor. An independent contractor undertaking to navigate a vessel would have the same protection as a pilot agreeing to navigate it himself.
act vs. actor
Where goods are purchased in one State for transportation to another the commerce includes the purchase quite as much as it does the transportation.
not any the less interstate commerce because the transportation did not begin or end with the transfer of title of the merchandise transported
the gas which petitioner purchases from Colorado Interstate moves in a continuous stream across state lines to local distributing companies in Colorado as well as Wyoming. If petitioner is engaged in 'the transportation of natural gas in interstate commerce' to those Colorado towns within the meaning of § 1(b), its wholesale sales in Colorado are also sales 'in interstate commerce of natural gas for resale for ultimate public consumption' as those words are used in § 1(b). That commerce does not end until the gas enters the service pipes of the distributing companies.
natural gas
The result of our decisions is to make the sale of gas which crosses a state line at any stage of its movement from wellhead to ultimate consumption 'in interstate commerce' within the meaning of the Act
natural gas