Kidd v. Pearson

Kidd v. Pearson
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 4, 1888 Decided October 22, 1888
Full case name	J. S. Kidd v. I. E. Pearson
Citations	128 U.S. 1 (more) 9 S. Ct. 6; 32 L. Ed. 346; 1888 U.S. LEXIS 2193
Prior history	Error to the Supreme Court of the State of Iowa
Subsequent history	None
Holding
There is no conflict and the state law is valid. The Court erected a distinction between manufacture and commerce. The state law regulated manufacturing only. A broad view of commerce that embraces manufacturing would also embrace the power to regulate "every branch of human industry."
Court membership
Chief Justice Melville Fuller Associate Justices Samuel F. Miller · Stephen J. Field Joseph P. Bradley · John M. Harlan T. Stanley Matthews · Horace Gray Samuel Blatchford · Lucius Q.C. Lamar II
Case opinions
Majority	Lamar, joined by Miller, Field, Bradley, Harlan, Matthews, Gray, Blatchford
Fuller took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Kidd v. Pearson, 128 U.S. 1 (1888), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that a distinction between manufacturing and commerce meant that an Iowa law that prohibited the manufacture of alcohol (in this case for sale out-of-state) was constitutional as it did not conflict with the power of the US Congress to regulate interstate commerce.

Background

An Iowa state law made the manufacturing of liquor in Iowa illegal, even though the liquor was being sold out-of-state.

Question before the Supreme Court

Is there a conflict between the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce.

Decision of the Court

The court ruled that there was not a conflict between Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce and the state law. Therefore the law was valid.

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 128
• Commerce Clause

External links

• Oyez
• Findlaw