Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/273/34/case.php
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 03:59:50+00:00

Document:
and Europe constitute a well recognized part of foreign commerce. See Davis v. Farmers' Cooperative Co., 262 U. S. 312, 262 U. S. 315. A state statute which by its necessary operation directly interferes with or burdens foreign commerce is a prohibited regulation and invalid, regardless of the purpose with which it was passed. Shafer v. Farmers' Grain Co., 268 U. S. 189, 268 U. S. 199, and cases cited. Such legislation cannot be sustained as an exertion of the police power of the state to prevent possible fraud. Real Silk Mills v. Portland, 268 U. S. 325, 268 U. S. 336. The Congress has complete and paramount authority to regulate foreign commerce and, by appropriate measures, to protect the public against the frauds of those who sell these tickets and orders. The sales here in question are related to foreign commerce as directly as are sales made in ticket offices maintained by the carriers and operated by their servants and employees. The license fee and other things imposed by the Act on plaintiff in error, who initiates for his principals a transaction in foreign commerce, constitute a direct burden on that commerce. This case is controlled by Texas Transport Co. v. New Orleans, 264 U. S. 150, and McCall v. California, 136 U. S. 104.
Unlike the ordinance considered in Texas Transport Co. v. New Orleans, 264 U. S. 150, this statute is not a revenue measure. The license fee is small. The whole of the proceeds is required to defray the expense of supervising the business. Unlike the measure considered in Real Silk Mills v. Portland, 268 U. S. 325, 268 U. S. 336, this statute is not an instrument of discrimination against interstate or foreign commerce. Unlike that considered in Shafer v. Farmers' Grain Co., 268 U. S. 189, 268 U. S. 199, it does not affect the price of articles moving in interstate commerce. The licensing and supervision of dealers in steamship tickets is, in essence, an inspection law. Compare Turner v. Maryland, 107 U. S. 38.
It is said that McCall v. California, 136 U. S. 104, requires that the Pennsylvania statute be held void. McCall was an employee of the railroad, not an independent solicitor or dealer. Di Santo, as the state court found the facts, was not an employee of a steamship company, nor an agent authorized to act for one, and it ruled as a matter of statutory construction that, if he had been such, he would not have been required by the statute to be licensed. It found him to be an independent dealer or contractor, "a free lance" authorized by the several steamship companies "to sell tickets or orders entitling the persons therein named to passage upon steamers," but "with no obligation to any particular company" except to remit the net amount payable by him to the company for a ticket or order sold. Moreover, the fee imposed by the San Francisco ordinance was an occupation tax, not an inspection fee. Here, the Pennsylvania court found that the statute did not produce any revenue.
this particular statute is a direct burden. The decision as to state regulations of this character depends often, as was said in Southern Railway v. King, 217 U. S. 524, 217 U. S. 533, "upon their effect upon interstate commerce." In that case, the Georgia blow post law was held constitutional as not being a direct burden. In Seaboard Air Line Ry. v. Blackwell, 244 U. S. 310, the same statute was held, on other facts, to be void because shown to be a direct burden. Each case required the decision of the question of law. Each involved merely an appreciation of the facts. Neither involved the declaration of a rule of law.
The many cases on the commerce clause in which this Court has overruled or explained away its earlier decisions show that the wisdom of this course has been heretofore recognized. [Footnote 4] In the case at bar, also, the logic of words should yield to the logic of realities.
See 46 U. S. 554, overruled by Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S. 100, 135 U. S. 118; 83 U. S. 647-648. See 82 U. S. 342; Peik v. C. & N.W. Ry. Co., 94 U. S. 164, qualified by Wabash, St.L. & P. Ry. Co. v. Illinois, 118 U. S. 557; Pullman's Palace Car Co. v. Pennsylvania, 141 U. S. 18, qualified in Union Tank Line Co. v. Wright, 249 U. S. 275; Maine v. Grand Trunk Ry. Co., 142 U. S. 217, qualified in Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Ry. Co. v. Texas, 210 U. S. 217; Texas Co. v. Brown, 258 U. S. 466; Bowman v. Continental Oil Co., 256 U. S. 642; Askren v. Continental Oil Co., 252 U. S. 444, and Standard Oil Co. v. Graves, 249 U. S. 389, all qualified in Sonneborn Bros. v. Cureton, 262 U. S. 506. Compare the discussion of 36 U. S. 296, and in Texas Transportation Co. v. New Orleans, 264 U. S. 150; that of Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. Texas, 204 U. S. 403, in Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern R. Co. v. Settle, 260 U. S. 166, 260 U. S. 173; that of Baltic Mining Co. v. Massachusetts, 231 U. S. 68, in Alpha Cement Co. v. Massachusetts, 268 U. S. 203.

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