United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

State of Missouri v. Holland, 252 U.S. 416 (1920)

State of Missouri v. Holland

No. 609

Argued March 2, 1920

Decided April 19, 1920

252 U.S. 416

Syllabus

Protection of its quasi-sovereign right to regulate the taking of game is a sufficient jurisdictional basis, apart from any pecuniary interest, for a bill by a State to enjoin enforcement of federal regulations over the subject alleged to be unconstitutional. P. 252 U. S. 431.

The Treaty of August 16, 1916, 39 Stat. 1702, with Great Britain, providing for the protection, by close seasons and in other ways, of migratory birds in the United States and Canada, and binding each power to take and propose to their lawmaking bodies the necessary measures for carrying it out, is within the treaty-making power conferred by Art. II, § 2, of the Constitution; the Act of July 3, 1918, c. 128, 40 Stat. 755, which prohibits the killing, capturing or selling any of the migratory birds included in the terms of the treaty, except as permitted by regulations compatible with those terms to be made by the Secretary of Agriculture, is valid under Art. I, § 8, of the Constitution, as a necessary and proper means of effectuating the treaty, and the treaty and statute, by bringing such birds within the paramount protection and regulation of the Government do not infringe property rights or sovereign powers respecting such birds reserved to the States by the Tenth Amendment. P. 252 U. S. 432.

Page 252 U. S. 417

With respect to right reserved to the State, the treaty-making power is not limited to what may be done by an unaided act of Congress. P. 252 U. S. 432.

258 Fed. Rep. 479, affirmed.

The case is stated in the opinion.

Page 252 U. S. 430