United States v. Alaska Steamship Co.

Background

A group of interstate rail and water carriers sued the federal government and the Interstate Commerce Commission to overturn a 1919 Commission order that required two new forms of bills of lading, one for domestic shipments and one for exports. A three-judge trial court refused to dismiss the case and issued a temporary order blocking the Commission’s forms; two judges agreed the Commission lacked authority, while one dissented. The carriers appealed directly to this Court.

Reasoning

While the appeal was pending, Congress passed the Transportation Act of 1920, which changed federal railroad regulation and required changes to both kinds of bills of lading. The Court concluded that the new law removed the live controversy about the particular forms the Commission had prescribed. Because the legal dispute had been ended by later legislation, the Court said it should not decide abstract or moot questions and therefore reversed the lower court’s order and directed the petition be dismissed.

Real world impact

The dismissal means the temporary block on the Commission’s 1919 forms is ended because Congress’s 1920 law requires different forms anyway. Carriers are not left without a remedy: the Court explicitly left open the carriers’ right to challenge any future Commission order prescribing bills of lading that comes after the new law. This decision is procedural and does not resolve whether the Commission has authority to set bills of lading on the merits.

Dissents or concurrances

At the trial level one judge disagreed with the majority and would have upheld the Commission’s power to prescribe the particular bills of lading at issue.