Granger Cases

A name applied to six cases decided by the supreme court of the United States in 1876, which are reported in Munn v. Illinois, 94 U. S. 113, 24 L. Ed. 77; Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. v. Iowa, 94 U. S. 155, 24 L. Ed. 94; Peik v. Ry. Co., 94 U. S. 165, 24 L. Ed. 97; Chicago, M. & St. P. R. Co. v. Ackley, 94 U. S. 179, 24 L. Ed. 99; Winona & St. Peter R. Co. v. Blake, 94 U. S. 180, 24 L. Ed. 99; those most frequently cited being Munn v. Illinois, and C., B. & Q. R. Co. v. Iowa. They are so called because they arose out of an agitation commenced by the grangers which resulted in the enactment of statutes for the regulation of the tolls and charges of common carriers, warehousemen, and the proprietors of elevators. The enforcement of these acts was resisted and their constitutionality questioned. The supreme court affirmed the common-law doctrine that private property appropriated by the owner to a public use is thereby subjected to public regulation. They also held that the right of regulation was not restrained by the prohibition of the fourteenth amendment of the federal constitution against the taking by the states of private property without due process of law. A text writer, who was at that time a member of the court, says of these cases: "But these decisions left undecided the question how far this legislative power of regulation belonged to the States, and how far it was in the congress of the United States"; Miller, Const. U. S. 397. As to what are public uses see Eminent Domain.

See Munn v. Illinois, Charter, 2, Private; Policy, 1, Public^