Source: http://www.joeldufresnecase.com/us-supreme-court-decisions/schecter-poultry-corp-v-united-states
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 18:06:46+00:00

Document:
poultry for slaughter and resale. After the poultry is trucked to their slaughterhouse markets in Brooklyn, it is there sold, usually within twenty-four hours, to retail poultry dealers and butchers who sell directly to consumers. The poultry purchased from defendants is immediately slaughtered, prior to delivery, byschochtim in defendants' employ. Defendants do not sell poultry in interstate commerce.
legislation to complex conditions involving a host of details with which the national legislature cannot deal directly. We pointed out in the Panama Companycase that the Constitution has never been regarded as denying to Congress the necessary resources of flexibility and practicality which will enable it to perform its function in laying down policies and establishing standards while leaving to selected instrumentalities the making of subordinate rules within prescribed limits, and the determination of facts to which the policy, as declared by the legislature, is to apply. But we said that the constant recognition of the necessity and validity of such provisions, and the wide range of administrative authority which has been developed by means of them, cannot be allowed to obscure the limitations of the authority to delegate, if our constitutional system is to be maintained. Id., p. 298 U. S. 421.
128 U. S. 604; Howe Scale Co. v. Wyckoff, Seaman & Benedict, 198 U. S. 118, 198 U. S. 140; Hanover Milling Co. v. Metcalf, 240 U. S. 403, 240 U. S. 413. In recent years, its scope has been extended. It has been held to apply to misappropriation as well as misrepresentation, to the selling of another's goods as one's own -- to misappropriation of what equitably belongs to a competitor. International News Service v. Associated Press, 248 U. S. 215, 248 U. S. 241,248 U. S. 242. Unfairness in competition has been predicated of acts which lie outside the ordinary course of business and are tainted by fraud, or coercion, or conduct otherwise prohibited by law. [Footnote 10] Id., p. 248 U. S. 258. But it is evident that, in its widest range, "unfair competition," as it has been understood in the law, does not reach the objectives of the codes which are authorized by the National Industrial Recovery Act. The codes may, indeed, cover conduct which existing law condemns, but they are not limited to conduct of that sort. The Government does not contend that the Act contemplates such a limitation. It would be opposed both to the declared purposes of the Act and to its administrative construction.
(1) Were these transactions "in" interstate commerce? Much is made of the fact that almost all the poultry coming to New York is sent there from other States. But the code provisions, as here applied, do not concern the transportation of the poultry from other States to New York, or the transactions of the commission men or others to whom it is consigned, or the sales made by such consignees to defendants. When defendants had made their purchases, whether at the West Washington Market in New York City or at the railroad terminals serving the City, or elsewhere, the poultry was trucked to their slaugterhouses in Brooklyn for local disposition. The interstate transactions in relation to that poultry then ended. Defendants held the poultry at their slaughterhouse markets for slaughter and local sale to retail dealers and butchers who, in turn, sold directly to consumers. Neither the slaughtering nor the sales by defendants were transactions in interstate commerce. Brown v. Houston,114 U. S. 622, 114 U. S. 632, 114 U. S. 633; Public Utilities Comm'n v. Landon, 249 U. S. 236, 249 U. S. 245; Industrial Association v. States, 268 U. S. 64,268 U. S. 78, 268 U. S. 79; Atlantic Coast Line v. Standard Oil Co., 275 U. S. 257, 275 U. S. 267.
(2) Did the defendants' transactions directly "affect" interstate commerce, so as to be subject to federal regulation? The power of Congress extends not only to the regulation of transactions which are part of interstate commerce, but to the protection of that commerce from injury. It matters not that the injury may be due to the conduct of those engaged in intrastate operations. Thus, Congress may protect the safety of those employed in interstate transportation "no matter what may be the source of the dangers which threaten it." Southern Ry. Co. v. United States, 222 U. S. 20, 222 U. S. 27. We said in Second Employers' Liability Cases, 223 U. S. 1, 223 U. S. 51, that it is the " effect upon interstate commerce," not "the source of the injury," which is "the criterion of congressional power." We have held that, in dealing with common carriers engaged in both interstate and intrastate commerce, the dominant authority of Congress necessarily embraces the right to control their intrastate operations in all matters having such a close and substantial relation to interstate traffic that the control is essential or appropriate to secure the freedom of that traffic from interference or unjust discrimination and to promote the efficiency of the interstate service. The Shreveport Case, 234 U. S. 342, 234 U. S. 351, 234 U. S. 352; Wisconsin Railroad Comm'n v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co., 257 U. S. 563,257 U. S. 588. And combinations and conspiracies to restrain interstate commerce, or to monopolize any part of it, are nonetheless within the reach of the Anti-Trust Act because the conspirators seek to attain their end by means of intrastate activities. Coronado Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers, 268 U. S. 295,268 U. S. 310; Bedford Cut Stone Co. v. Stone Cutters Assn., 274 U. S. 37, 274 U. S. 46.
"The alleged conspiracy and the acts here complained of spent their intended and direct force upon a local situation -- for building is as essentially local as mining, manufacturing or growing crops -- and if, by a resulting diminution of the commercial demand, interstate trade was curtailed either generally or in specific instances, that was a fortuitous consequence so remote and indirect as plainly to cause it to fall outside the reach of the Sherman Act."

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