The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-04-15
RAILROADS VICTORIOUS
STATE RIGHTS BEATEN
Supreme Court kuIlifies Mime.
sofa and N. Carolina Rate Laws.
HELD TO BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Enormous Penalties Prevent Compa
MES From Questioning Validity
Federal Courts Upheld, JUS
tice Harlan Dissenting.

Washington, D. Estates rights
received a staggering blow from the
Supreme Court of the United States,
That tribunal decided the laws OF
Minnesota and North Carolina seek
ing to regulate rates on intra-State
freight and passenger traffic were un-
constitutional by UNFOLDING the juris.
diction Of Federal courts to inquire
into the confscatory nature OF State
right laws.
The Supreme Court gave the rail-
roads their first big victory since the
days when the Federal Government
and the States began their crusade
against them.
The Minnesota Freight Rate law,
passed last year, was declared uncon-
stitutional in that it imposed such
large fines and such long imprlson-
ments $1,000 and five years - on
railroads and officials that the courts
were practically closed to them.
Justice Harlan, in a 12,OO0-word
opinion, dissents on the ground that
the proceeding in the Minnesota case
is 8 suit against the State, and, there
fore, not permissible under the Con-
stitution. He says:
Neither the words nor the policy
of the Eleventh Amendment will, un-
der our former decisions, justify any
order of a Federal court, the neces-
sary effect of which will be to exclude
a State from it's own courts. SUCH
an order, attended by such results,
cannot, I submit, be sustained con-
sistently with the powers which the
States, according to the uniform dec
larations of this court, possess under
the Constitution.
II am justified, BY what this court
has heretofore declared, in now say
ing that the wise men who framed
the Constitution and who caused the
edoption of the Eleventh Amendment
would be startled by the suggestion
that a State of the Union can be pre-
vented by an order Of a subordinate
Federal court from being represented
by it's Attorney-General in a suit
brought by the State in u of It's
own courts; and that such an order
would be inconsistent with the dig
nifty Of the States as involved in their
constitutional immunity from the
judicial process of the Federal courts
Except in the limited cases in which
they may constitutionally be made
parties in this COURT, and would be
attended by most pernicious results"
In the North Carolina case the &C
ton Of Justice Pritchard. of the
United States Circuit Court, in dis
missing James Wood, an agent of the
Southern Railroad, from jail, where
be had been sent for violating the
State railroad rate law, was sustained.
The court said that Justice Pritchard,
having assumed jurisdiction in the
case questioning the legality of the
law, had the right, and it was his duty
to see that nothing ~interfered with
the determination of the question in
his court. In both the cases Justice
Harlan alone d%issented.
AS . result of the decisions. At
torney-General Edward Young, Of
Minnesota, must pay a fine of 500
for contempt of the Federal Court of
Minnesota, which found him guilty Of
attempting to enforce the Minnesota
freight law, after the Federal Court
had enjoined him from so doing.
Young invited the contempt proceed
lngs to test the law.