Gibbons v. Ogden

In the case of Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824), the United States Supreme Court ruled on March 2, 1824 that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution reserved to Congress the power to regulate interstate navigation.

Related Topics:
22 U.S. 1 - 1824 - United States Supreme Court - March 2 - Commerce Clause - Constitution - Congress

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The case arose from an attempt by New York State to grant a monopoly of steamboat operation between New York and neighboring New Jersey. Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston were granted such exclusive rights. They licensed the New Jersey operator Aaron Ogden, formerly a U.S. Senator and Governor of New Jersey, to operate the ferry between New York City and Elizabeth Point in New Jersey. Gibbon was operating a competing ferry service that was licensed by a statute enacted by Congress in 1793 as vessels in the coasting trade. Ogden obtained an injunction from New York court against Gibbons, and maintained that navigation was a distinct form of commerce, and was thus a legitimate area of state regulation.

Related Topics:
New York - New Jersey - Aaron Ogden

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The Court disagreed, finding that "The mind can scarcely conceive a system for regulating commerce between nations which shall exclude all laws concerning navigation." The ruling determined that "a Congressional power to regulate navigation is as expressly granted as if that term had been added to the word 'commerce'".

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The Court went on to conclude that Congressional power over commerce should extend to the regulation of all aspects of it, overriding state law to the contrary:

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:If, as has always been understood, the sovereignty of Congress, though limited to specified objects, is plenary as to those objects, the power over commerce with foreign nations and among the several states is vested in Congress as absolutely as it would be in a single government, having in its constitution the same restrictions on the exercise of the power as are found in the Constitution of the United States.

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The broader interpretation of Congressional power established by Gibbons v. Ogden survived until 1895, when the court began to limit Congressional power in the case of United States v. E. C. Knight Co., 156 U.S. 1 (1895).

Related Topics:
United States v. E. C. Knight Co. - 1895

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