| Carter v. Carter Coal Co.
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63 Washington Law Rep. 986 affirmed in part and reversed in part. 12 F.Supp. 570 reversed. |
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| Syllabus
| Opinion
[ Sutherland ] | Separate
[ Hughes ] | CDInPart
[ Cardozo ] |
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Carter v. Carter Coal Co.
CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
Separate opinion of MR. CHIEF JUSTICE HUGHES.
I agree that the stockholders were entitled to bring their suits; that, in view of the question whether any part of the Act could be sustained, the suits were not premature; that the so-called tax is not a real tax, but a penalty; that the constitutional power of the Federal Government to impose this penalty must rest upon the commerce clause, as the Government concedes; that production -- in this case, mining -- which precedes commerce is not itself commerce, and that the power to regulate commerce among the several States is not a power to regulate industry within the State.
The power to regulate interstate commerce embraces the power to protect that commerce from injury, whatever may be the source of the dangers which threaten it, and to adopt any appropriate means to that end. Second Employers' Liability Cases, 223 U.S. 1, 51. Congress thus has adequate authority to maintain the orderly conduct of interstate commerce and to provide for the peaceful settlement of disputes which threaten it. Texas & N.O. R. Co. v. Railway Clerks, 281 U.S. 548, 570. But Congress may not use this protective authority as a pretext for the exertion of power to regulate activities and relations within the States which affect interstate commerce only indirectly. Otherwise, in view of the multitude of indirect effect, Congress, in its discretion, [p318] could assume control of virtually all the activities of the people, to the subversion of the fundamental principle of the Constitution. If the people desire to give Congress the power to regulate industries within the State, and the relations of employers and employees in those industries, they are at liberty to declare their will in the appropriate manner, but it is not for the Court to amend the Constitution by judicial decision.
I also agree that subdivision (g) of Part III of the prescribed Code is invalid upon three counts: (1) It attempts a broad delegation of legislative power to fix hours and wages without standards or limitation. The Government invokes the analogy of legislation which becomes effective on the happening of a specified event, and says that, in this case, the event is the agreement of a certain proportion of producers and employees, whereupon the other producers and employees become subject to legal obligations accordingly. I think that the argument is unsound, and is pressed to the point where the principle would be entirely destroyed. It would remove all restrictions upon the delegation of legislative power, as the making of laws could thus be referred to any designated officials or private persons whose orders or agreements would be treated as "events," with the result that they would be invested with the force of law having penal sanctions. (2) The provision permits a group of producers and employees, according to their own views of expediency, to make rules as to hours and wages for other producers and employees who were not parties to the agreement. Such a provision, apart from the mere question of the delegation of legislative power, is not in accord with the requirement of due process of law which under the Fifth Amendment dominates the regulations which Congress may impose. (3) The provision goes beyond any proper measure of protection of interstate [p319] commerce, and attempts a broad regulation of industry within the State.
But that is not the whole case. The Act also provides for the regulation of the prices of bituminous coal sold in interstate commerce, and prohibits unfair methods of competition in interstate commerce. Undoubtedly, transactions in carrying on interstate commerce are subject to the federal power to regulate that commerce, and the control of charges and the protection of fair competition in that commerce are familiar illustrations of the exercise of the power, as the Interstate Commerce Act, the Packers and Stockyards Act, and the Anti-Trust Acts abundantly show. The Court has repeatedly stated that the power to regulate interstate commerce among the several States is supreme and plenary. Minnesota Rate Cases, 230 U.S. 352, 398. It is
complete in itself, and may be exercised to its utmost extent, and acknowledges no limitations other than are prescribed in the Constitution.
Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 196. We are not at liberty to deny to the Congress, with respect to interstate commerce, a power commensurate with that enjoyed by the States in the regulation of their internal commerce. See Nebbia v. New York, 291 U.S. 502.
Whether the policy of fixing prices of commodities sold in interstate commerce is a sound policy is not for our consideration. The question of that policy, and of its particular applications, is for Congress. The exercise of the power of regulation is subject to the constitutional restriction of the due process clause, and if, in fixing rates, prices or conditions of competition, that requirement is transgressed, the judicial power may be invoked to the end that the constitutional limitation may be maintained. Interstate Commerce Comm'n v. Union Pacific R. Co., 222 U.S. 541, 547; St. Joseph Stock Yards Co. v. United States, ante, p. 38. [p320]
In the legislation before us, Congress has set up elaborate machinery for the fixing of prices of bituminous coal sold in interstate commerce. That provision is attacked in limine. Prices have not yet been fixed. If fixed, they may not be contested. If contested, the Act provides for review of the administrative ruling. If, in fixing prices, due process is violated by arbitrary, capricious or confiscatory action, judicial remedy is available. If an attempt is made to fix prices for sales in intrastate commerce, that attempt will also be subject to attack by appropriate action. In that relation, it should be noted that, in the Carter cases, the court below found that substantially all the coal mined by the Carter Coal Company is sold f.o.b. mines, and is transported into States other than those in which it is produced for the purpose of filling orders obtained from purchasers in such States. Such transactions are in interstate commerce. Savage v. Jones, 225 U.S. 501, 520. The court below also found that "the interstate distribution and sale and the intrastate distribution and sale" of the coal are so "intimately and inextricably connected" that
the regulation of interstate transactions of distribution and sale cannot be accomplished effectively without discrimination against interstate commerce unless transactions of intrastate distribution and sale be regulated.
Substantially the same situation is disclosed in the Kentucky cases. In that relation, the Government invokes the analogy of transportation rates. Shreveport Case, 234 U.S. 342; Wisconsin Railroad Comm'n v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co., 257 U.S. 563. The question will be the subject of consideration when it arises in any particular application of the Act.
Upon what ground, then, can it be said that this plan for the regulation of transactions in interstate commerce in coal is beyond the constitutional power of Congress? The Court reaches that conclusion in the view that the [p321] invalidity of the labor provisions requires us to condemn the Act in its entirety. I am unable to concur in that opinion. I think that the express provisions of the Act preclude such a finding of inseparability.
This is admittedly a question of statutory construction, and hence we must search for the intent of Congress. And, in seeking that intent, we should not fail to give full weight to what Congress itself has said upon the very point. The Act provides (§ 15):
If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstances, is held invalid, the remainder of the Act and the application of such provisions to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby."
That is a flat declaration against treating the provisions of the Act as inseparable. It is a declaration which Congress was competent to make. It is a declaration which reverses the presumption of indivisibility and creates an opposite presumption. Utah Power & Light Co. v. Pfost, 286 U.S. 165, 184.
The above-quoted provision does not stand alone. Congress was at pains to make a declaration of similar import with respect to the provisions of the Code (§ 3):
No producer shall by reason of his acceptance of the code provided for in section 4 or of the drawback of taxes provided in section 3 of this Act be held to be precluded or estopped from contesting the constitutionality of any provision of said code, or its validity as applicable to such producer.
This provision evidently contemplates, when read with the one first quoted, that a stipulation of the Code may be found to be unconstitutional, and yet that its invalidity shall not be regarded as affecting the obligations attaching to the remainder.
I do not think that the question of separability should be determined by trying to imagine what Congress would [p322] have done if certain provisions found to be invalid were excised. That, if taken broadly, would lead us into a realm of pure speculation. Who can tell, amid the host of divisive influences playing upon the legislative body, what its reaction would have been to a particular excision required by a finding of invalidity? The question does not call for speculation of that sort, but rather for an inquiry whether the provisions are inseparable by virtue of inherent character. That is, when Congress states that the provisions of the Act are not inseparable and that the invalidity of any provision shall not affect others, we should not hold that the provisions are inseparable unless their nature, by reason of an inextricable tie, demands that conclusion.
All that is said in the preamble of the Act, in the directions to the Commission which the Act creates, and in the stipulations of the Code, is subject to the explicit direction of Congress that the provisions of the statute shall not be treated as forming an indivisible unit. The fact that the various requirements furnish to each other mutual aid and support does not establish indivisibility. The purpose of Congress, plainly expressed, was that, if a part of that aid were lost, the whole should not be lost. Congress desired that the Act and Code should be operative so far as they met the constitutional test. Thus, we are brought, as I have said, to the question whether, despite this purpose of Congress, we must treat the marketing provisions and the labor provisions as inextricably tied together because of their nature. I find no such tie. The labor provisions are themselves separated and placed in a separate part (Part III) of the Code. It seems quite clear that the validity of the entire Act cannot depend upon the provisions as to hours and wages in paragraph (g) of Part III. For what was contemplated by that paragraph is manifestly independent of [p323] the other machinery of the Act, as it cannot become effective unless the specified proportion of producers and employees reach an agreement as to particular wages and hours. And the provision for collective bargaining in paragraphs (a) and (b) of Part III is apparently made separable from the Code itself by § 9 of the Act, providing, in substance, that the employees of all producers shall have the right of collective bargaining even when producers do not accept or maintain the Code.
The marketing provisions (Part II) of the Code naturally form a separate category. The interdependence of wages and prices is no clearer in the coal business than in transportation. But the broad regulation of rates in order to stabilize transportation conditions has not carried with it the necessity of fixing wages. Again, the requirement, in paragraph (a) of Part II, that district boards shall establish prices so as to yield a prescribed "return per net ton" for each district in a minimum price area in order "to sustain the stabilization of wages, working conditions and maximum hours of labor" does not link the marketing provisions to the labor provisions by an unbreakable bond. Congress evidently desired stabilization through both the provisions relating to marketing and those relating to labor, but the setting up of the two sorts of requirements did not make the one dependent upon the validity of the other. It is apparent that they are not so interwoven that they cannot have separate operation and effect. The marketing provisions in relation to interstate commerce can be carried out as provided in Part II without regard to the labor provisions contained in Part III. That fact, in the light of the congressional declaration of separability, should be considered of controlling importance.
In this view, the Act, and the Code for which it provides, may be sustained in relation to the provisions for [p324] marketing in interstate commerce, and the decisions of the courts below, so far as they accomplish that result, should be affirmed.