The Increased Control of State Activities by the Federal Courts

It has been well said that “The question of the relation of the states to the federal government is the cardinal question of our constitutional system. At every turn of our national development we have been brought face to face with it, and no definition either of statesmen or of judges has ever quieted or decided it. It cannot, indeed, be settled by the opinion of any one generation, because it is a question of growth, and every successive stage of our political and economic development gives it a new aspect, makes it a new question.†The current discussion provoked by the apparently increasing frequency with which the federal judiciary interferes with the enforcement of the legislative will of the states aptly emphasizes the force of this conclusion. Within late years the federal courts have interposed in numerous cases involving state activities and have asserted the power to control such activities under various circumstances. A brief enumeration of some of the most recent instances of this exercise of power will best indicate the frequency and apparent freedom with which it has been resorted to. Thus it has been held that state boards and commissions, attorneys general and prosecuting attorneys may be enjoined from putting into effect a schedule of railroad rates or gas, telegraph or stockyards rates. alleged to be invalid as working a deprivation of property without due process of law or as otherwise violating the federal constitution.