Southern Pacific Co. v. Arizona Ex Rel. Sullivan

In Hennington v. Georgia, 163 U. S. 299, 304, a case which involved the power of a state to regulate interstate traffic, this Court said, “The whole theory of our government, federal and state, is hostile to the idea that questions of legislative authority may depend . . . upon opinions of judges as to the wisdom or want of wisdom in the enactment of laws under powers clearly conferred upon the legislature.” What the Court decides today is that it is unwise governmental policy to regulate the length of trains. I am therefore constrained to note my dissent.

For more than a quarter of a century,…