Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/271/583/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 02:21:51+00:00

Document:
1. Assuming that the use of its highways by private carriers for hire is a privilege which the state may deny, it cannot constitutionally affix to that privilege the unconstitutional condition precedent that the carrier shall assume against his will the burdens and duties of a common carrier. P. 271 U. S. 592.
2. Under the Auto Stage and Truck Transportation Act of California, as amended in 1919, and as construed and applied by the state supreme court in this case, private carriers by automobile for hire cannot operate over the state highways between fixed termini without having first secured from the Railroad Commission a certificate of public convenience and necessity, and therein they not merely become subject to regulations appropriate to private carriers, but submit themselves to the condition of becoming common carriers and of being regulated as such by the Commission. Held violative of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. P. 271 U. S. 591.
It is unnecessary to inquire which view is correct, since the Act has been authoritatively construed by the state supreme court. That court, while saying that the state was without power, by mere legislative fiat or even by constitutional enactment, to transmute a private carrier into a public carrier, declared that the state had the power to grant or altogether withhold from its citizens the privilege of using its public highways for the purpose of transacting private business thereon, and that therefore the legislature might grant the right on such conditions as it saw fit to impose. In the light of this general statement of principle, it was held that the effect of the transportation act is to offer a special privilege of using the public highways to the private carrier for compensation upon condition that he shall dedicate his property to the quasi-public use of public transportation; that the private carrier is not obliged to submit himself to the condition, but, if he does not, he is not entitled to the privilege of using the highways.
"The question as to the right of a state to impose upon a corporation engaged in interstate commerce the duty of obtaining a permit from the state as a condition of its right to carry on such commerce is a question which it is not necessary to decide in this case. In all the cases in which this Court has considered the subject of the granting by a state to a foreign corporation of its consent to the transaction of business in the state, it has uniformly asserted that no conditions can be imposed by the state which are repugnant to the Constitution and laws of the United States. La Fayette Ins. Co. v. French, 18 How. 404, 59 U. S. 407; Ducat v. Chicago, 10 Wall. 410, 77 U. S. 415; Insurance Co. v. Morse, 20 Wall. 445, 87 U. S. 456; St. Clair v. Cox, 106 U. S. 350, 106 U. S. 356; Phila. Fire Assn. v. New York, 119 U. S. 110, 119 U. S. 120."
Since that decision, the same principle has been reiterated many times, and never departed from. Pullman Co. v. Kansas, 216 U. S. 56, 216 U. S. 63; International Text-Book Co. v. Pigg, 217 U. S. 91; Herndon v. Chi., R.I. & P. Ry., 218 U. S. 135, 218 U. S. 158; Harrison v. St.L. & San Francisco R. Co., 232 U. S. 318, 232 U. S. 332; Looney v. Crane Co., 245 U. S. 178, 245 U. S. 187; International Paper Co. v. Massachusetts, 246 U. S. 135, 246 U. S. 142-143; Western Union Tel. Co. v. Foster, 247 U. S. 105, 247 U. S. 114; Public Utility Commrs. v. Ynchausti & Co., 251 U. S. 401, 251 U. S. 404; Terrall v. Burke Constr. Co., supra; Burnes Nat. Bank v. Duncan, 265 U. S. 17, 265 U. S. 24; Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland v. Tafoya et al., 270 U. S. 426.
the consequence would not follow. Acts generally lawful may become unlawful when done to accomplish an unlawful end (United States v. Reading Co., 226 U. S. 324, 226 U. S. 357), and a constitutional power cannot be used by way of condition to attain an unconstitutional result (Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Kansas, 216 U. S. 1; Pullman Co. v. Kansas, 216 U. S. 56; Sioux Remedy Co. v. Cope, 235 U. S. 197, 235 U. S. 203). The regulation in question is quite as great an interference as a tax of the kind that repeated decisions have held void. It cannot be justified 'under that somewhat ambiguous term of police powers.'"
"The states cannot use their most characteristic powers to reach unconstitutional results. Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Kansas, 216 U. S. 1; Pullman Co. v. Kansas, 216 U. S. 56; Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Foster, 247 U. S. 105, 247 U. S. 114."
We hold that the Act under review, as applied by the court below, violates the rights of plaintiffs in error as guaranteed by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that the privilege of using the public highways of California in the performance of their contract is not and cannot be affected by the unconstitutional condition imposed. Western Union Tel. Co. v. Kansas, supra, p. 216 U. S. 48.
lawful acts or conditions may become unlawful when done or imposed to accomplish an unlawful end. But that is only the converse of the proposition that acts in other circumstances unlawful may be justified by the purpose for which they are done. This applies to acts of the legislature as well as to the doings of private parties. The only valuable significance of the much abused phrase police power is this power of the state to limit what otherwise would be rights having a pecuniary value when a predominant public interest requires the restraint. The power of the state is limited in its turn by the constitutional guaranties of private rights, and it often is a delicate matter to decide which interest preponderates and how far the state may go without making compensation. The line cannot be drawn by generalities, but successive points in it must be fixed by weighing the particular facts. Extreme cases on the one side and on the other are Edgar A. Levy Leasing Co. v. Siegel, 258 U. S. 242, and Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U. S. 393.
264 U.S. 264 U. S. 145. I think that the judgment should be affirmed.

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