holding that a state law regulating rates charged by grain elevators did not violate the elevator operators' substantive-due-process rights because the statute was `affected with the public interest' and, thus, within the police power of the state
How later courts described this case
- holding that a state law regulating rates charged by grain elevators did not violate the elevator operators' substantive-due-process rights because the statute was `affected with the public interest' and, thus, within the police power of the state
- noting that the government’s power to regulate private property arises when the private property “is ‘affected with a public interest’ ”; adding that this principle is the source of “the power to regulate the charges of common carriers”—“[c]ommon carriers exercise a sort of public office, and have duties to perform in which the public is interested” and so “[t]heir business is... ‘affected with a public interest’ ”
- explaining that state regulation of property that is used in a way that is of public consequence is a valid exercise of the state’s powers
- noting that warehousemen, “[l]ike common carriers, * * * are required by law to receive grain from all persons, and store the same upon equal terms and condi- tions”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Mr. Justice Strong.
When the judgment in this case was announced by direction of a majority of the court, it was well known by all my brethren that I did not concur in it. It had been my purpose to prepare a dissenting opinion, but I found no time for the preparation, and I was reluctant to dissent in such a case without stating my reasons. Mr. Justice Field has now stated them as fully as I can, and I concur in what he has said.