Munn v. Illinois

MUNN V. ILLINOIS

MUNN V. ILLINOIS, 94 U.S. 113 (1876), upheld state regulation of grain elevator prices. Chief Justice Morrison Waite's majority opinion rejected a commerce clause claim on the grounds that the grain elevators were wholly intrastate and Congress has taken no action to regulate any interstate commerce effects. The Court rejected a Fourteenth Amendment claim on the theory that the state could regulate private property devoted to public use and in the nature of a virtual monopoly. It suggested, however, that in other situations the prices of private contracts might be judicially reviewable under a reasonableness standard. Justice Stephen Field, joined by Justice William Strong, dissented, viewing the statute as "subversive of the rights of private property" as guaranteed by the Constitution. In the 1930s supporters of the New Deal would use Munn as an example of proper judicial restraint and appropriate deference to the judgments of legislative bodies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nowark, John E., and Ronald D. Rotunda. Constitutional Law. St. Paul, Minn: West, 2000.

Richard L. Aynes

See also Government Regulation of Business .