In re Debs

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In re Debs

Argued March 25 – 26, 1895
Decided May 27, 1895

Full case name:	In re Eugene V. Debs, Petitioner

Citations:	158 U.S. 564; 15 S. Ct. 900; 39 L. Ed. 1092; 1895 U.S. LEXIS 2279

Holding

The court ruled that the government had a right to regulate interstate commerce and ensure the operations of the Postal Service, along with a responsibility to "ensure the general welfare of the public."

Court membership

Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
Associate Justices: Stephen Johnson Field, John Marshall Harlan, Horace Gray, David Josiah Brewer, Henry Billings Brown, George Shiras, Jr., Howell Edmunds Jackson, Edward Douglass White

Case opinions

Majority by: Brewer
Joined by: unanimous

Laws applied

U.S. Const.

In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564 (1895)^[1], was a United States Supreme Court decision handed down concerning Eugene V. Debs and labor unions. Debs, president of the American Railroad Union, was involved in the Pullman Strike earlier in 1894 and challenged the federal injunction ordering the strikers back to work where they would face being fired. The injunction had been issued because of the violent nature of the strike. However, Debs refused to end the strike and was subsequently cited for contempt of court; he appealed the decision to the courts.

The main question being debated was whether the federal government had a right to issue the injunction, which dealt with both interstate and intrastate commerce and shipping on rail cars. With an opinion written by Justice David Josiah Brewer, the court ruled in a unanimous decision in favor of the U.S. government. Joined by Chief Justice Melville Fuller and Associate Justices Stephen Johnson Field, John Marshall Harlan, Horace Gray, Henry Billings Brown, George Shiras, Jr., Howell Edmunds Jackson, and Edward Douglass White, the court ruled that the government had a right to regulate interstate commerce and ensure the operations of the Postal Service, along with a responsibility to "ensure the general welfare of the public."