Oklahoma Ex Rel. West v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.

Citations

• 220 U.S. 302
• 31 S. Ct. 442
• 55 L. Ed. 474
• 1911 U.S. LEXIS 1677

Syllabus

<p>Oklahoma v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co., ante, p. 277, followed to effect that an act of Congress granting rights of way to a railroad company through a Territory and reserving the right to regulate charges until organization of a state government, which should, then be authorized to fix and regulate charges, ceased to be operative when the State was organized.</p> <p>The operative effect of the act of Congress of March 2, 1887, c. 319, 24 Stat. 446, regulating charges of a railway-in Oklahoma Territory having ceased by its own terms on Oklahoma becoming a State, the question of what rights the State had in that respect under the Enabling Act is merely an abstract one.</p> <p>Whether rates of a railway within the territory of a new State are illegal depends upon the law of the State, subject to the constitutional protection of the railway company against undue exactions without due process of law, and not upon acts of Congress affecting such rates passed prior to the formation of the State and which by their own terms expressly cease to be operative after the formation of the State.</p>