Petitioners filed with the Price Administrator a protest under the Emergency Price Control Act. The Price Administrator denied the protest. The Emergency Court of Appeals dismissed the petitioners' complaint. This Court granted certiorari. 326 U. S. 710. Reversed, p. 49. Mac Asbill argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the brief were Allen P. Dodd, Sr. and Max O'Rell Truitt. Richard H. Field argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Solicitor General McGrath, John R. Benney, Jacob D. Hyman and John O. Honnold, Jr. MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioners were stockholders in a distilling corporation on the dissolution of which in December, 1942, they received as their share of the assets warehouse receipts covering the bulk whiskey owned by the corporation. Early in January, 1943, they sold these receipts at a price above that fixed by the Administrator for bulk whiskey, Maximum Price Regulation 193, 7 Fed. Reg. 6006 (August 4, 1942), on the assumption that the receipts constituted "securities" expressly exempt from the pricing provisions. On the basis of the sale of these certificates the Administrator, under § 205 (e) of the Emergency Price Control Act, 56 Stat. 23, 34; 50 U. S. C. App. § 925 (e), brought a suit for treble damages against the petitioners to recover approximately $6,800,000. That suit is still pending. In May, 1945, petitioners, invoking the authority of § 203 (a), 56 Stat. 23, 31, 58 Stat. 632, 638; 50 U. S. C. App. § 923 (a), sought to have the regulation on which the enforcement proceedings against them were based de clared invalid or inapplicable by a protest filed with the Administrator. He dismissed it on the authority of Thomas Paper Stock Co. v. Bowles, 148 F. 2d 831, the ruling of which we have reversed in Utah Junk Co. v. Porter, decided this day, ante, p. 39. Petitioners then went to the Emergency Court, which dismissed the complaint without opinion, and we granted certiorari. 326 U. S. 710. Prior to the petition for certiorari, petitioners obtained leave of the trial court in the treble damage action to file a complaint with the Emergency Court under § 204 (e) of the Act, 58 Stat. 632, 639, 50 U. S. C. App. § 925 (e), and on January 10, 1946, that court sustained the validity of the regulation. Collins v. Bowles, 152 F.2d 760. The Government contends that the latter decision of the Emergency Court renders moot the judgment of that court dismissing the complaint, which is the only judgment now before us. This Court is powerless to decide a case if its decision "cannot affect the rights of the litigants in the case before it." St. Pierre v. United States, 319 U. S. 41, 42. The decision of this case may affect the rights of the litigants. The Emergency Court sustained the challenged regulation. It refused to pass on the applicability of the regulation to the petitioners. It left that question to the District Court before which the treble damage suit is pending. Had petitioners' contentions come before the Emergency Court through the protest proceedings under § 203 (a) that court would have adjudicated both issues. Conklin Pen Co. v. Bowles, 152 F. 2d 764; Collins v. Bowles, supra. And in the event that the Emergency Court had found the regulation inapplicable and such decision had been made before a judgment was rendered in the District Court, its ruling would be binding upon the District Court. Under § 204 (e) (2) (ii), consideration of a protest under § 203 (a) is not a ground for staying the 46 Opinion of the Court. proceedings in the District Court, since the protest proceeding did not precede the suit in the District Court; and under the same provisions of the Act determination of the protest proceeding under § 203 (a) can have no retroactive effect once the District Court has entered its judgment. But the opportunity for securing a decision from the Emergency Court through the protest proceeding before a judgment in the District Court is entered, has practical significance and makes this a living and not a hypothetical controversy. On the merits the case is governed by our decision in Utah Junk Co. v. Porter. The petitioners in this case had a right to have their protests considered by the Administrator and, in case of denial, to resort to the Emergency Court of Appeals. The fact that Congress in 1944 gave a limited opportunity to go to the Emergency Court by leave of the District Court before which an enforcement proceeding is pending, § 204 (e), neither repealed nor qualified the protest proceeding originally designed by 203 (a). The two modes of securing a hearing on the validity and applicability of the price regulation are cumulative and not alternative. The Administrator advances no argument to distinguish the case from that of Utah Junk Co. v. Porter. His contention that the petitioners are not persons "subject to . . . [the] regulation," § 203 (a), is amply refuted by the continuing liability of the petitioners, United States v. Hark, 320 U. S. 531, for some $6,800,000, should their arguments as to the invalidity and inapplicability of the regulation be rejected when the case is considered on the merits. It is superfluous to discuss other issues raised in this case. Judgment reversed. MR. JUSTICE JACKSON took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. Statement of the Case. 328 U.S. THOMAS PAPER STOCK CO. ET AL. v. PORTER, PRICE ADMINISTRATOR. CERTIORARI TO THE EMERGENCY COURT OF APPEALS. Nos. 67 and 578. Argued February 25, 26, 1946.-Decided April 22, 1946. 1. The Taft Amendment to the Emergency Price Control Act nullified price schedules based on standards, and no such schedules could be valid after that Amendment unless and until the Price Administrator "determined" that no other method of price control was practicable. P. 53. 2. Sales of wastepaper between July 16, 1943, the effective date of the Taft Amendment, and September 11, 1943, the date when the Price Administrator determined that other than by standardization no method of effective price control of such commodity was practicable, did not subject the sellers to the penalties of the Emergency Price Control Act, even though such sales were at prices in excess of a pre-Taft Amendment maximum price based on a standard. Pp. 51-52, 56. 3. The accommodation of the various interests involved in a system of price control is for Congress, not the courts; and the legislation is to be so construed as to give effect to the will of Congress. P. 55. 151 F.2d 345, reversed. No. 578. By leave of the District Court in which a prosecution of the petitioners for violation of a regulation under the Emergency Price Control Act was pending, petitioners sought in the Emergency Court of Appeals a declaration of the invalidity of the regulation. The Emergency Court of Appeals sustained the validity of the regulation. 151 F. 2d 345. This Court granted certiorari. 326 U. S. 715. Reversed, p. 56. No. 67. Petitioners filed a protest with the Price Administrator under the Emergency Price Control Act. The Price Administrator denied the protest. The Emergency 148 Court of Appeals sustained the Price Administrator. Jack H. Oppenheim argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the briefs was Claude A. Roth. Jacob D. Hyman argued the cause in No. 578, and Richard H. Field argued the cause in No. 67, for respondent. With them on the briefs were Solicitor General McGrath, Ralph F. Fuchs and Josephine H. Klein. MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court. Having been charged with violations of a price regulation, petitioners challenged its validity before the Emergency Court of Appeals by two different modes in two separate actions. The claim of invalidity in both proceedings was based on the Taft Amendment to the Price Control Act. Adjudication of this claim will dispose of both cases without consideration of procedural issues raised before the Emergency Court. Thomas Paper Stock Company, a dealer in paper scrap, and its president were indicted under § 205 (b) of the Emergency Price Control Act, 56 Stat. 23, 33; 50 U. S. C. App. § 925 (b), for the sale of wastepaper in violation of Maximum Price Regulation No. 30, 7 Fed. Reg. 9732 (Nov. 24, 1942). Section 1347.14 (d) of that regulation fixed the maximum price for unsorted wastepaper in terms of a specification or standard. Id. at 9735. On similar allegations, the Administrator later began an action against petitioners for treble damages. § 205 (e), 56 Stat. 23, 34; 50 U. S. C. App. § 925 (e). Both proceedings involved sales of wastepaper between July 16, 1943 and September |