Alton Railroad v. Illinois Commerce Commission

The question is whether an order made by the commission, denying appellant’s application for authority to discontinue, and requiring it to continue, maintenance and operation of a switch track in Chicago used to serve shippers, deprives it of its property in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Specifically, appellant maintains that by compelling it to expend its funds for the upkeep of a track not constructed or owned by it and upon land it does not own, the order is repugnant to that provision of the Constitution. The Illinois supreme court, affirming the circuit…