Public Service Commission of Utah et al. v. Wycoff Company, Inc. (344 U.S. 237)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 22, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 344 U.S. 237 · 73 S. Ct. 236
- Docket
- No. 44
- Argued
- November 13, 1952
- Decided
- December 22, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1952
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Minton, Justice Clark, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Black
- Concurring in the judgment
- Justice Reed (wrote)
- Dissenting
- Justice Douglas (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. As this suit in equity was commenced in United States District Court it sought two kinds of specific relief: (1) a declaratory judgment that complainant’s carriage of motion picture film and newsreels between points in Utah constitutes interstate commerce; (2) that the Public Service Commission of Utah and its members be forever enjoined from interfering with such transportation over routes authorized by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The complaint alleged a course of importing, processing and transporting picture film and newsreels to support the contention that carriage between points in Utah was so integrated with their interstate movement that the whole constituted interstate commerce. It averred that the Commission and its members “threaten to and are attempting to stop and prevent plaintiff from transporting motion picture film and newsreels between points and places within the State of Utah, and they are thereby interfering with the conduct of interstate commerce by the plaintiff and imposing an undue burden upon interstate commerce,” and that unless the defendants are enjoined they will “block, harass and prevent plaintiff in the transportation of said motion picture film and newsreels in Utah.” The Commission and its members answered that respondent’s transportation between points in Utah was nothing more…
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