United States v. Union Pacific Railroad

Background

Eleven transportation carriers applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission to be relieved from the long-and-short-haul clause of the Act to Regulate Commerce. After hearings the Commission granted some relief but set proportional relations between longer and shorter hauls using percentage zones. The carriers refused to obey that order and sued in the Commerce Court to stop enforcement. The lower court entered an interlocutory injunction, and the record contains two appeals identified as No. 137 (interlocutory) and No. 163 (final decree); different localities are involved but the legal questions are the same.

Reasoning

The central question was whether the carriers could obtain and keep a court order preventing the Commission’s rate scheme from being enforced. The Court treated these cases with companion cases and said they are governed by the opinion in Nos. 136 and 162. For the reasons given in those companion opinions, the Supreme Court concluded the lower court erred in maintaining the injunction and ruling for the carriers. The Court reversed the decree and sent the cases back to the proper District Court with directions to dismiss the carriers’ bill for want of equity.

Real world impact

Because the Supreme Court reversed and ordered dismissal, the court injunction stopping the Commission’s proportional long-and-short-haul rate order is removed and the ICC order stands unless changed through other legal or administrative steps. The decision resolves these parallel local challenges the same way and ends the carriers’ particular efforts to block enforcement.