Ayrshire Collieries Corp. et al. v. United States et al. (335 U.S. 573)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 3, 1949 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 335 U.S. 573 · 69 S. Ct. 278
- Docket
- No. 25
- Argued
- November 12, 1948
- Decided
- January 3, 1949
- Term
- October Term 1948
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed, Justice Black, Justice Rutledge, Justice Murphy
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal, 38 Stat. 219, 220, 28 U. S. C. §§ 45 and 47a, 43 Stat. 938, 28 U. S. C. § 345 (4), from a decree of a three-judge District Court, which dismissed as without merit two complaints seeking to set aside a rate order of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Bituminous coal is produced in great quantities in Indiana, Illinois and western Kentucky. In each State there are producing areas that have long been grouped for rate-making purposes. These groups or districts are the Brazil-Clinton, the Linton-Sullivan, the Princeton-Ayrshire, and the Boonville in Indiana; the Northern Illinois, the Fulton-Peoria, the Springfield, the Belleville, and the Southern in Illinois; and the Western in Kentucky. Group rates have been established by the carriers so that all mines within each producing area are accorded the same rates to the same consuming destinations. The result is that comparative distances of the mines in one producing area from a particular consuming destination are commonly disregarded in fixing the group rate. But the Commission has long concluded that such a system of rate making for coal and other natural resources encourages competitive production and a more even development of an area. The present litigation involves group rates for carload lots from the foregoing groups in Indiana, Illinois, and…
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