United States v. Morton Salt Co. (338 U.S. 632)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 6, 1950 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 338 U.S. 632 · 70 S. Ct. 357
- Docket
- No. 273
- Argued
- December 14, 1949
- Decided
- February 6, 1950
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 7–0
- 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 Clark, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed, Justice Black
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a controversy as to the power of the Federal Trade Commission to require corporations to file reports showing how they have complied with a decree of the Court of Appeals enforcing the Commission’s cease and desist order, in addition to those reports required by the decree itself. Proceedings under § 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act culminated in a Commission order requiring respondents Morton Salt Company and International Salt Company, together with eighteen other salt producers and a trade association, to cease and desist from stated practices in connection with the pricing, producing and marketing of salt. The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the order with modifications and commanded compliance. 134 F. 2d 354. The decree directed that reports of the manner of compliance be filed with the Commission within ninety days, but it reserved jurisdiction “to enter such further orders herein from time to time as may become necessary effectively to enforce compliance in every respect with this decree and to prevent evasion thereof.” The decree expressly was “without prejudice to the right of the United States, as provided in Section 5 (1) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, to prosecute suits to recover civil penalties for violations of the said modified order to cease and desist hereby…
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