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Case regarding state-created monopolies. Several parishes (counties) in eastern Louisiana
desired to move all meat and butchering slaughter house activities to a location outside the city
limits. In so doing, the local government provided the Crescent City Live-stock Landing and
Slaughter-house Company a 25 year monopoly to monitor and oversee all slaughter house operations. This
monopoly effectively placed all butchers in the area out of work, thus depriving these people of the
right to work.
The majority opinion provides interesting background history about monopolies in England. The Supreme
Court agreed that state-created monopolies were unconstitutional and as such deprived people of their
right to work (property) without due process of law. Such monopolies also violated equal protection. In
a concurring opinion, Justice Bradley stated, “The right to follow any of the common occupations of
life is an inalienable right, it was formulated as such under the phrase ‘pursuit of happiness’ in
the declaration of independence, which
commenced with the fundamental proposition that ‘all men are created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.’ This right is a large ingredient in the civil liberty of the citizen. To deny it to all
but a few favored individuals, by investing the latter with a monopoly, is to invade one of the
fundamental privileges of the citizen, contrary not only to common right, but, as I think, to the
express words of the constitution.”
Full Text: Butchers’ Union Co. v.
Crescent City Co., 111 U.S. 746 (1883) |