United States v. Louisiana, 290 U.S. 70 (1933)
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U.S. Supreme Court UNITED STATES v. STATE OF LOUISIANA, 290 U.S. 70 (1933)
[Page 290 U.S. 70, 82]
when attacked before district courts of three judges in Montana and Kentucky. State of Montana v. United States, 2 F.Supp. 448; Commonwealth of Kentucky v. United States, 3 F.Supp. 778. Nor do they differ in any material way from those in Wisconsin Passenger Fares, 59 I.C.C. 391, 393, which were deemed adequately to support the finding of undue prejudice in Wisconsin Railroad Commission v. C., B. & Q.R.R., supra, page 580 of 257 U. S., 42 S.Ct. 232, 22 A.L.R. 1086. See, also, Georgia Pub. Service Commission v. United States, supra; Alabama v. United States, 283 U.S. 776, 51 S.Ct. 623; Louisiana Public Service Commission v. Texas & New Orleans R.R., 284 U.S. 125, 54 S.Ct. 74.
3. The fact that the order of the Commission for the increase of interstate rates was permissive only does not affect the validity of its order prescribing minimum intrastate rates. The interstate rates after the addition of the authorized surcharges were lawful rates in interstate commerce, which was discriminated against by the failure to make corresponding increases in intrastate rates. This discrimination the Commission removed in the manner authorized by section 13(4), by prescribing minimum intrastate rates at the same level as the interstate rates. The order precluded any unauthorized interference with state regulatory power by providing that it should be effective only so long as the surcharges upon interstate rates should be maintained by the carriers.
Reversed. Footnotes
Footnote 1 ' 15a. ... (2) In the exercise of its power to prescribe just and reasonable rates the commission shall initiate, modify, establish or adjust such rates so that carriers as a whole (or as a whole in each of such rate groups or territories as the commission may from time to time designate) will, under honest, efficient and economical management and reasonable expenditures for maintenance of way, structures and equipment, earn an aggregate annual net railway operating income equal, as nearly as may be, to a fair return upon the aggregate value of the railway property of such carriers held for and used in the service of transportation: Provided, That the commission shall have reasonable latitude to modify or adjust any particular rate which it may find to be unjust or unreasonable, and to prescribe different rates for different portions of the country.'
Footnote 2 Section 13(4): 'Whenever in any such investigation the commission, after full hearing, finds that any such rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, or practice causes any undue or unreasonable advantage, preference, or prejudice as between persons or localities in intrastate commerce on the one hand and interstate or foreign commerce on the other hand, or any undue, unreasonable, or unjust discrimination against interstate or foreign commerce, which is forbidden and declared to be unlawful it shall prescribe the rate, fare, or charge, or the maximum or minimum, or maximum and minimum, thereafter to be charged, and the classification, regulation, or practice thereafter to be observed, in such manner as, in its judgment, will remove such advantage, preference, prejudice, or discrimination. ...' 41 Stat. 456, 484 (49 USCA 13(4).
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