Champion v. Ames

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Champion v. Ames

Argued February 27 – 28, 1901
Reargued October 16 – 17, 1901
Reargued December 15 – 16, 1902
Decided February 23, 1903

Full case name:	Charles F. Champion v. John C. Ames, United States Marshal

Citations:	188 U.S. 321; 23 S. Ct. 321; 47 L. Ed. 492; 1903 U.S. LEXIS 1283

Prior history:	Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of Illinois

Holding

The Court held that traffic in lottery tickets did constitute interstate commerce that could be regulated by the U.S. Congress under the Commerce Clause.

Court membership

Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
Associate Justices: John Marshall Harlan, David Josiah Brewer, Henry Billings Brown, George Shiras, Jr., Edward Douglass White, Rufus Wheeler Peckham, Joseph McKenna, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Case opinions

Majority by: Harlan
Joined by: Brown, White, McKenna, Holmes
Dissent by: Fuller
Joined by: Brewer, Shiras, Peckham

Champion v. Ames, 188 U.S. 321 (1903)^[1], was a decision by the United States Supreme Court which held that traffic in lottery tickets constituted interstate commerce that could be regulated by the U.S. Congress under the Commerce Clause.

Most important in this case was that the Supreme Court recognized that Congress' power to regulate interstate traffic is plenary. That is, the power is complete in and of itself. This wide discretion allowed Congress to regulate traffic as it sees fit, within Constitutional limits, even to the extent of prohibiting goods, as here. This plenary power is distinct from the aggregate-impact theories later espoused in the Shreveport line of cases.

Congress had enacted a law in 1895 that prohibited the transportation of lottery tickets across state lines, a violation of which the appellant was convicted. The 5-4 decision upholding the statute was authored by John Marshall Harlan. The dissent by Chief Justice Fuller was joined by Justice Brewer, Justice Shiras, and Justice Peckham.

[edit] See also

The Louisiana State Lottery
List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 188
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), which is actually the first time the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce is plenary (see Chief Justice Harlan's majority opinion)