Louisville v. State of Mississippi

• Decision Date: 03 March 1890
• Parties: LOUISVILLE, N. O. & T. Ry. Co. v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. 1
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

133 U.S. 587

10 S.Ct. 348

33 L.Ed. 784

LOUISVILLE, N. O. & T. Ry. Co. v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI.¹

March 3, 1890.

The Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railway Company was indicted for neglecting to provide separate accommodations on its trains for white and colored persons, as required by act of March 2, 1888. From a judgment of conviction, defendant appealed to the supreme court, where the judgment was affirmed. 6 South. Rep. 203. Defendant brings error.

W. P. Harris, for plaintiff in error.

T. M. Miller, Atty. Gen. Miss., for defendant in error.

BREWER, J.

The question presented is as to the validity of an act passed by the legislature of the state of Mississippi on the 2d of March, 1888. That act is as follows: 'Section 1. Be it enacted, that all railroads carrying passengers in this state, other than street railroads, shall provide equal, but separate, accommodation for the white and colored races, by providing two or more passenger-cars for each passenger train, or by dividing the passenger-cars by a partition so as to secure separate accommodations. Sec. 2. That the conductors of such passenger trains shall have power, and are hereby required, to assign each passenger to the car or the compartment of a car, when it is divided by a partition, used for the race to which said passenger belongs, and that, should any passenger refuse to occupy the car to which he or she is assigned by such conductor, said conductor shall have power to refuse to carry such passenger on his train, and neither he nor the railroad company shall be liable for any damages in any court in this state. Sec. 3. That all railroad companies that shall refuse or neglect, within sixty days after the approval of this act, to comply with the requirements of section one of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction in a court of competent jurisdiction, be fined not more than five hundred dollars; and any conductor that shall neglect to, or refuse to, carry out the provisions of this act, shall, upon conviction, be fined not less than twenty-five, nor more than fifty, dollars for each offense. Sec. 4. That all acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed; and this act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.' Acts 1888, p. 48.

The plaintiff in error was indicted for a violation of that statute. A conviction in the trial court was sustained in the supreme court, and from its judgment this case is here on error. The question is whether the act is a regulation of interstate commerce, and therefore beyond the power of the state; and the cases of Hall v. De Cuir, 95 U. S. 485, and Railroad Co. v. Illinois, 118 U. S. 557, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 4, are specially relied on by plaintiff in error. It will be observed that this indictment was against the company for the violation of section 1, in not providing separate accommodations for the two races, and not against a conductor for a violation of section 2, in failing to assign each passenger to his separate compartment. It will also be observed that this is not a civil action brought by an individual, to recover damages for being compelled to occupy one particular compartment, or prevented from riding on the train; and hence there is no question of personal insult, or alleged violation of personal rights. The question is limited to the power of the state to compel railroad companies to provide, within the state, separate accommodations for the two races. Whether such accommodation is to be a matter of choice or compulsion, does not enter into this case. The case of Hall v. DeCuir, supra, was a civil action to recover damages from the owner of a steam-boat for refusing to the plaintiff, a person of color, accommodations in the cabin specially set apart for white persons; and the validity of a statute of the state of Louisiana prohibiting discrimination on account of color, and giving a right of action to the party injured for the violation thereof, was a question for consideration. The steam-boat was engaged in interstate commerce, but the plaintiff only sought transportation from one point to another in the state. This court held that statute, so far as applicable to the facts in that case, to be invalid. That decision is invoked here, but there is this marked difference: The supreme court of the state of Louisiana held that the act applied to interstate carriers, and required them, when they came within the limits of the state, to receive colored passengers into the cabin set apart for white persons. This court, accepting that construction as conclusive, held that the act was a regulat on of interstate commerce, and therefore beyond the power of the state. The chief justice, speaking for the court, said: 'For the purposes of this case we must treat the act of Louisiana of February 23, 1869, as requiring those engaged in interstate commerce to give all persons traveling in that state, upon the public conveyances employed in such business, equal rights and privileges in all parts of the conveyance, without distinction or discrimination or account of race or color. Such was the construction given to that act in the courts below, and it is conclusive upon us as the construction of a state law by the state courts. It is with this provision of the statute alone that we have to deal. We having nothing whatever to do with it as a regulation of internal commerce, or as affecting anything else than commerce among the states.' And again: 'But we think that it may safely be said that state legislation which seeks to impose a direct burden upon interstate commerce, or to interfere directly with its freedom, does encroach upon the exclusive power of congress. The statute now under consideration, in our opinion, occupies that position. It does not act upon the business through the local instruments to be employed after coming within the state, but directly upon the business as it comes into the state from without, or goes out from within. While it purports only to control the carrier when engaged within the state, it must necessarily influence his conduct, to some extent, in the management of his business throughout his entire voyage. His disposition of passengers taken up and put down within the state, or taken up within to be carried without, cannot but affect, in a greater or less degree, those taken up without, and brought within, and sometimes those taken up and put down without. A passenger in the cabin set apart for the use of whites without the state must, when the boat comes within, share the accommodations of that cabin with such colored persons as may come on board afterwards, if the law is enforced.' So the decision was by it terms carefully limited to those cases in which the law practically interfered with interstate commerce. Obviously, whether interstate passengers of one race should, in any portion of their journey, be compelled to share their cabin accommodations with passengers of another race, was a question of interstate commerce, and to be deter- mined by congress alone. In this case,...