Frost & Frost Trucking Co. v. Railroad Comm'n of Cal.

Background

A group of trucking companies hauled citrus under a private contract over California public highways. A California law required permits and a certificate showing “public convenience and necessity” to operate; an amendment extended that requirement to private contract carriers. The Railroad Commission ordered these truckers to stop unless they obtained the certificate, and the State supreme court upheld that order.

Reasoning

The high court asked whether the State may make the use of public highways depend on giving up constitutional protections. The Court said no: the law, as applied, effectively forced private carriers to become common carriers and accept burdens they did not voluntarily assume. That kind of conditional surrender of constitutional rights cannot be imposed by a state, so the application of the statute violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process protections.

Real world impact

The decision prevents California, in this application, from forcing private trucking businesses to accept the duties of common carriers simply to use public roads. The Court left open the State’s power to regulate true common carriers or to act when a private carrier is in substance a common carrier. The ruling reverses the state-court judgment and protects private carriers from being compelled to surrender constitutional rights in exchange for highway access.

Dissents or concurrances

Two Justices dissented, arguing the State could reasonably license and regulate highway transport to protect public safety and traffic, and that the statute’s certificate requirement was within legitimate state police power.