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Gibbons V Ogden ( 1824 )

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Gibbons v Ogden (1824) In 1807, Aaron Ogden purchased exclusive rights to operate steamboats between New York City and New Jersey from Mr Fulton and Mr Livingston. These exclusive rights had been granted by the state of New York. When Thomas Gibbons operated steamboats in Ogden’s route in 1819, Ogden sued Gibbons. This case eventually went to the Supreme Court . The Supreme Court ruled in favour of Gibbons, since his right to operate a steamboat on that route was protected by an act of Congress. According to Chief Justice Marshall, since interstate commerce includes navigation through a generally accepted understanding of the word “commerce”, the act of Congress was constitutional. To quote Chief Justice Marshall, he also argued that “Commerce… is intercourse. It describes the commercial intercourse between nations, and parts of nations… The mind can scarcely conceive a system for regulating commerce… which shall exclude all laws concerning navigation…” .

United States v E.C. Knight Company (1895) In 1892, the E.C. Knight Company acquired the American Sugar Refining Company and monopolised the sugar refining industry in the United States. This violated the newly enacted Sherman Antitrust Act (1890), which outlawed any attempt to monopolise trade in the United States . The government sued the company and the case went to the Supreme Court . The Court ruled that an article manufactured for interstate export does not make it an article of interstate commerce. The Court

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