Stafford v. Wallace

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STAFFORD V. WALLACE

STAFFORD V. WALLACE, 258 U.S. 495 (1922). In Stafford v. Wallace, the U.S. Supreme Court used the Constitution's interstate commerce power to uphold the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, which regulated stockyards, meatpackers, and commission men who facilitated transactions between stock owners, stockyards, packers, and dealers. Writing for a 7 to 1 majority, Chief Justice William Howard Taft rejected the argument that the law regulated intrastate commerce. Rather, he held that stockyards were "in the middle of … [the] current of commerce" and that they are "a throat through which the current flows." This holding anticipated a more expansive view of interstate commerce power developed by the Court after 1937.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Epstein, Lee, and Thomas G. Walker. Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Institutional Powers and Constraints. 4th ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2001.

Richard L.Aynes

See alsoInterstate Commerce Laws ; Packers and Stockyards Act .

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