Munn v. Illinois

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Munn v. Illinois
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 14 – 18, 1876
Decided March 1, 1877
Full case name: Munn v. State of Illinois
Citations: 94 U.S. 113; 24 L. Ed. 77; 1876 U.S. LEXIS 1842; 4 Otto 113
Holding
Court membership
Chief Justice: Morrison Waite
Associate Justices: Nathan Clifford, Noah Haynes Swayne, Samuel Freeman Miller, David Davis, Stephen Johnson Field, William Strong, Joseph Philo Bradley, Ward Hunt
Case opinions
Majority by: Waite
Dissent by: Stephen Johnson Field
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Munn v. Illinois, 94 U.S. 113 (1876),[1] was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with corporate rates and agriculture. The Munn v. Illinois case allowed states to regulate certain businesses within their borders, including railroads.

This case involved the famous opinion delivered by Chief Justice Morrison Remick Waite (1816-1888). In it, he upheld legislation proposed by the National Grange to regulate grain elevator rates, declaring that business interests (private property) used for public good be regulated by government. This decision also affected similar laws governing railroad rates; as they were also deemed private utilities serving the public interest, the laws governing their rates were constitutional as well. Both applications were considerably narrowed and weakened by the decision in Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois (also known as the Wabash Case).

In Munn v. Illinois, the Supreme Court decided that the Fourteenth Amendment did not prevent the State of Illinois from regulating charges for use of a business's grain elevators. Instead, the decision focused on the question of whether or not a private company could be regulated in the public interest. The court's decision was that it could, if the private company could be seen as a utility operating in the public interest.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

  1. ^ 94 U.S. 113 (Full text of the decision courtesy of Findlaw.com)

[edit] References

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