Opinion of the Court. Constitution of the United States, because its provisions amounted to a regulation of interstate commerce. The facts upon which the controversy then presented arose were briefly as follows: Kegs of beer were offered in the State of Illinois to a common carrier operating a line of railway in the States of Illinois and Iowa. The beer was consigned to a point in Iowa, and the carrier refused to receive it, on the ground that the statute of Iowa made it unlawful to bring intoxicating liquors within the limits of that State, except when accompanied with a specified certificate, which the Iowa law provided should be granted under particular and exceptional conditions. The one by whom the beer was tendered to the carrier in the State of Illinois thereupon sued the railroad company for the damages claimed to have arisen from its refusal to receive and carry the merchandise. The railway company defended on the ground that it was justified in its refusal because of the provision of the Iowa statute. This, on the other hand, was asserted not to be an adequate defence, because it was claimed that the Iowa statute was wholly void, as it constituted a regulation of interstate commerce. The sole issue arising therefrom was whether the Iowa law protected the refusing carrier, and thus involved determining whether the statute of the State was repugnant to the Constitution of the United States. After great consideration, it was held that the law of the State of Iowa, in so far as it affected interstate commerce, was repugnant to the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, and was void. It was decided that the transportation of merchandise from one State into and across another was interstate commerce, and was protected from the operation of state laws from the moment of shipment whilst in transit and up to the ending of the journey by the delivery of the goods to the consignee at the place to which they were consigned. The court in the course of its opinion adverted to the question whether goods so shipped continued to be protected by the interstate commerce clause after their delivery to the consignee and up to and including their sale in the original package by the one to whom they had been delivered, but did not decide the question, as it was Opinion of the Court. not essential to do so. Referring to the subject, however, the court said (pp. 499-500): "It might be very convenient and useful in the execution of the policy of prohibition within the State to extend the powers of the State beyond its territorial limits. But such extraterritorial powers cannot be assumed upon such an implication. On the contrary, the nature of the case contradicts their existence. For if they belong to one State, they belong to all, and cannot be exercised severally and independently. The attempt would necessarily produce that conflict and confusion which it was the very purpose of the Constitution by its delegations of national power to prevent. "It is easier to think that the right of importation from abroad, and of transportation from one State to another, includes, by necessary implication, the right of the importer to sell unbroken packages at the place where the transit terminates; for the very purpose and motive of that branch of commerce which consists in transportation is that other and consequent act of commerce which consists in the sale and exchange of the commodities transported. Such, indeed, was the point decided in the case of Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419, as to foreign commerce, with the express statement, in the opinion of Chief Justice Marshall, that the conclusion would be the same in a case of commerce among the States. But it is not necessary now to express any opinion upon the point, because that question does not arise in the present case. The precise line which divides the transaction, so far as it belongs to foreign or interstate commerce, from the internal and domestic commerce of the State, we are not now called upon to delineate. It is enough to say that the power to regulate or forbid the sale of a commodity, after it has been brought into the State, does not carry with it the right and power to prevent its introduction by transportation from another State." Subsequently, in Leisy v. Hardin, (1890) 135 U. S. 100, the question which was thus reserved in the Bowman case arose for adjudication, and it was held that the right to sell the imported merchandise in the original package free from inter Opinion of the Court. ference of state laws was protected by the Constitution of the United States, as up to such sale the goods brought into the State were not commingled with the mass of property in the State. Summing up its conclusions the court said (p. 124): "The plaintiffs in error are citizens of Illinois, are not pharmacists and have no permit, but import into Iowa beer which they sell in original packages, as described. Under our decision in Bowman v. Chicago &c. Railway Co., supra, they had the right to import this beer into that State, and, in the view which we have expressed, they had the right to sell it, by which act alone it would become mingled in the common mass of property within the State. Up to that point of time we hold that, in the absence of Congressional permission to do so, the State had no power to interfere by seizure, or any other action, in prohibition of importation and sale by the foreign or non-resident importer." The statute of the State of Iowa, under which the prosecution now before us was instituted, is as follows: "If any express company, railway company or any agent or person in the employ of any express company, or of any common carrier, or any person in the employ of any common carrier, or if any other person shall transport or convey between points, or from one place to another within this State, for any other person or persons or corporation, any intoxicating liquors, without having first been furnished with a certificate from and under the seal of the county auditor of the county to which said liquor is to be transported or is consigned for transportation, or within which it is to be conveyed from place to place, certifying that the consignee or person to whom said liquor is to be transported, conveyed or delivered is authorized to sell such intoxicating liquors in such county, such company, corporation or person so offending, and each of them, and any agent of said company, corporation or person so offending, shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of one hundred dollars for each offence, and pay costs of prosecution, and the costs shall include a reasonable attorney fee to be assessed by the court, which shall be paid into the county fund, and stand committed to the county jail VOL. CLXX-27 Opinion of the Court. until such fine and costs of prosecution are paid. The offence herein defined shall be held to be complete, and shall be held to have been committed in any county of the State, through or to which said intoxicating liquors are transported, or in which the same is unloaded for transportation, or in which said liquors are conveyed from place to place or delivered. It shall be the duty of the several county auditors of the State to issue the certificate herein contemplated to any person having such permit, and the certificate so issued shall be truly dated when issued, and shall specify the date at which the permit expires, as shown by the county records. Provided, however, that the defendant may show as a defence hereunder by preponderance of evidence that the character and circumstances of the shipment and its contents were unknown to him." (Iowa Code, section 1553, paragraph 2410, McClain's Annotated Code of Iowa.) or This statute is identical with the one which was held to be unconstitutional in the Bowman case, except that the latter contained the words "knowingly bring within this State," these words having been stricken out by an amendment adopted after the decision in the Bowman case. In other words, the statute which was under review in the Bowman case provided, "if any express company, railway company or any agent or person in the employ of any express company, of any common carrier, or if any other person shall knowingly bring within this State, or transport or convey between points or from one place to another within the State," whilst the statute now before us provides exactly the same thing, except that the words "knowingly bring within this State" are omitted. It is hence manifest that the present statute, as interpreted by the Supreme Court of Iowa, has exactly the significance it would have did it contain the words found in the act reviewed in the Bowman case. It follows that the law before us now, as interpreted below, is the exact equivalent of the statute which has once before been declared by this court to be repugnant to the Constitution. This result in reason is inevitable, since the court below held that the words, as found in the present law, were not confined to transporta Opinion of the Court. tion of commodities originating within the State, but related to shipments made from another State. This ruling hence subjects shipments made from another State to the control of the statute at once on the arrival of the merchandise within the territorial limits of the State, and before the completion of the interstate shipment, as completely as if the words “bring within this State were yet in the statute. As it was held in the Bowman case that the power to ship from one State into another embraced of necessity the right to have the goods carried to the place of destination, and be delivered at that point to the consignee, it follows that an interpretation of the present law which gives the State the right to stop the goods shipped into the State at the state line, and before their arrival at destination, is directly within the rule announced in the Bowman case. The fundamental right which the decision in the Bowman case held to be protected from the operation of state laws by the Constitution of the United States was the continuity of shipment of goods coming from one State into another from the point of transmission to the point of consignment, and the accomplishment there of the delivery covered by the contract. This protection of the Constitution of the United States is plainly denied by the statute now under review, as its provisions are interpreted by the court below. The power which it was held in the Bowman case the State did not possess was that of stopping interstate shipments at the state line by breaking their continuity and intercepting their course from the point of origin to the point of consummation. The right of a State to exert these very powers is plainly upheld by the decision rendered below. It follows that if the ruling in the Bowman case is applicable to the question here presented, it is decisive of this controversy, and must lead to a reversal of the judgment below rendered. The claim is, however, and it was upon this ground that the court below rested its judg ment, that under and by virtue of the provisions of the act of Congress of August 8, 1890, c. 728, 26 Stat. 313, the ruling in the Bowman case is no longer apposite, as the effect of the act of Congress in question was to confer upon the State of Iowa |