Gloucester Ferry Co. v. Pennsylvania

Citations

• 114 U.S. 196
• 5 S. Ct. 826
• 29 L. Ed. 158
• 1885 U.S. LEXIS 1751

Syllabus

<p>Coqimerce among tie States consists of intercourse aDd traffic between their citizens, and includes the transportation of persons and property, and the navigation of public waters for that purpose, as well as the purchase, sale •and exchange of comumdities.</p> <p>The power to regulate commerce, inter-State and foreign, vested in Congress, is the power to prescribe the rules by which it shall be governed, that is, the conditions upon which it shall be conducted; to determine when it shall be free and when subject to duties or other exactions.</p> <p>As to those subjects of commerce which are local or limited in their nature .or sphere of operation, the State may prescribe regulations until Congress as . sumes control of them.</p> <p>As to-such as are national in their-character, and require uniformity of regulation, the power of Congress is exclusive; and until Congress acts, such commerce is entitled to be free from State exactions and burdens.</p> <p>The commerce with foreign nations and between the States, which consists in the transportation of persons and property between them, is a subject of ■ national character, and requires uniformity of regulation.</p> <p>The business of receiving and landing of passengers and freight is incident to their transportation, and a-tax upon such receiving and landing is a tax upon transportation and upon commerce, inter-State or foreign, involved' ' in such transportation.</p> <p>The only interference by a State with the landing and receiving of passengers or freight arriving by vessels from another State or from a .foreign' country ■ which- is permissible, is confined to measures to prevent confusion among the vessels, and collisions between them, -to insure their safety and convenience, and to facilitate the discharge or receipt of- their passengers a,nd freight.</p> <p>Inter-State commerce by corporations is entitled to the same protection against State exactions which is given to such commerce when carried on by individu