Munn v. Illinois, 94 US 113 - Supreme Court 1877

"Property does become clothed with a public interest when used in a manner to make it of public consequence, and affect the community at large. When, therefore, one devotes his property to a use in which the public has an interest, he, in effect, grants to the public an interest in that use, and must submit to be controlled by the public for the common good, to the extent of�…

—`for protection against abuses by Legislatures the people must resort to the polls not to the courts.

—this court held that there was nothing in the Constitution of the United States which prevented the legislature of Illinois from fixing, by statute, the maximum of charges for the storage of grain in warehouses at Chicago and other places in that State, where grain is stored in bulk, and in which the grain of different owners is mixed together, or in which the grain is stored in�…

The court conceded that the milk industry was not a public utility, but held that it was a business affected with a public interest and therefore subject to regulation.

More than a century ago we recognized that "the great office of statutes is to remedy defects in the common law as they are developed, and to adapt it to the changes of time and circumstances."

Courts must not declare an act to be unconstitutional "unless it is clearly so. If there is doubt, the expressed will of the legislature should be sustained."

That presumption is especially strong when Congress has "legislated... in [a] field which the States have traditionally occupied."

Thus, I conclude that deer breeders with a permit have a property interest in their breeder deer under common law principles after legally taking the deer from their natural liberty and keeping them in captivity pursuant to state law, while the state maintains sovereign "ownership"—as a legal fiction and distinguished from proprietary ownership.[14]

Thus, in addition to upholding the power of the State to require reasonable maximum charges for public service

—l09 the United States Supreme Court held that Illinois could regulate the prices charged by warehousemen.