Morgan's Steamship Co. v. Louisiana Board of Health

Citations

• 118 U.S. 455
• 6 S. Ct. 1114
• 30 L. Ed. 237
• 1886 U.S. LEXIS 1945

Syllabus

<p>The system of quarantine laws established by statutes of Louisiana is a rightful exercise of the police power for the protection of health, which is not forbidden by the Constitution of the United States.</p> <p>While some of the rules of that system may amount to regulations of commerce with foreign nations or among the States, though not so designed, they belong to that class which the States may establish until Congress acts in the matter by covering the same ground or forbidding State laws.</p> <p>Congress, so far from doing either of these things, has, by the act of 1799 (ch. 53, Rev. Stat.) and previous laws, and by the recent act of 1878, 20, Stat., 37, adopted the laws of the States on that subject, and forbidden all interference with their enforcement.</p> <p>The requirement that each vessel passing a quarantine station shall pay a fee . fixed by the statute, for examination as to her sanitary condition, and the ports from which she came, is a part of all quarantine systems, and is a compensation for services rendered to the vessel, and is not a tax within the meaning of the Constitution concerning tonnage tax imposed by the States.</p> <p>Nor is it liable to constitutional objection as giving a preference for a port of one State over those of another. That section (nine) of the first article of the Constitution is a restraint upon powers of the General Government and not of the States, and can have no application to the quarantine laws of Louisiana.</p>