United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Buck v. Kuykendall, 267 U.S. 307 (1925)

Buck v. Kuykendall

No. 345

Argued November 25, 1924

Decided March 2, 1925

267 U.S. 307

Syllabus

1. Section 4, of c. 111, Laws of Washington, 1921, which prohibits common carriers for hire from using the highways by auto vehicles between fixed termini or over regular routes without having obtained from the Director of Public Works a certificate declaring that public convenience and necessity require such operation is primarily not a regulation to secure safety on highways or to conserve them, but a prohibition of competition, and, as applied to one desirous of using the highways as a common carrier of passengers and express purely in interstate commerce, is a violation of the Commerce Clause, besides defeating the purpose expressed in acts of Congress giving federal aid for construction of interstate highways. P. 267 U. S. 315.

2. A party who has received no benefit from and who does not rely upon a statute is not estopped from assailing it as unconstitutional merely because he vainly endeavored to comply with it. P. 267 U. S. 316.

295 Fed.197, 203, reversed.

Appeal from a decree of the district court dismissing a bill for an injunction. See 295 Fed.197; id. 203. The opinion is printed as amended by order, June 8, 1925.

Page 267 U. S. 312