Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co. v. May

Background

A farmer who owned land next to a railroad sued to collect a $25 penalty after the railroad let Johnson grass go to seed on its right of way. A Texas statute of 1901 imposed that penalty only on railroad companies for permitting Johnson grass or Russian thistle to seed on their track strips, provided the suing neighbor had not done the same thing. The railroad argued the statute denied it equal treatment under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Reasoning

The main question was whether singling out railroads in this law was so unreasonable that it violated equal protection. Justice Holmes’s opinion explained that state legislatures are normally the judges of what policy a discrimination requires, and courts should not overturn such a choice unless there is clearly no fair reason for it. The Court accepted possible local reasons: seeds might fall from cars in harmful quantities, neglected railroad strips might let weeds flourish, and private farmers might have stronger incentives to control pests than railroads. On that basis the Court affirmed the judgment against the railroad.

Real world impact

The decision lets a neighbor collect the statutory penalty against a railroad under this Texas law and upholds a state’s choice to single out railways for this kind of regulation. It does not say railroads are always different in every rule, only that in this case the legislature’s reasons were plausible. The judgment was affirmed, with one Justice concurring.

Dissents or concurrances

Three Justices dissented. Justice Brown argued the discrimination was arbitrary, that no evidence showed seeds came from cars, and that the law should have been made general rather than aimed only at railroads.