United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Mintz v. Baldwin, 289 U.S. 346 (1933)

Mintz v. Baldwin

No. 760

Argued April 10, 1933

Decided May 8, 1933

289 U.S. 346

Syllabus

1. To prevent the spread of an infectious disease, a state, if not prevented by action of Congress, may require that cattle shall not be imported for dairy or breeding purposes unless accompanied by the certificate of the proper sanitary official of the origin certifying that the animals to be brought in, and also the herds from which they come, are free of the disease. Pp. 289 U. S. 349-350.

2. Congress will not be deemed to have superseded or excluded such state action under the commerce clause unless its intention to do so has been made definite and clear. P. 289 U. S. 350.

3. The Cattle Contagious Diseases Act of March 3, 1905, applying only to shipments from quarantined districts established by the Secretary of Agriculture, does not conflict with the state inspection measure here in question as applied to shipments not made from such a district. P. 289 U. S. 350.

4. The Cattle Contagious Diseases Act of February 2, 1903, is not inconsistent with enforcement of a state inspection order as to cattle which have not been inspected and certified by federal authority. P. 289 U. S. 350.

5. The expression in that Act of a purpose to exclude state inspection in cases where federal inspection has been made and certificate issued, strongly suggests that Congress intended not otherwise to trammel enforcement of state quarantine measures. P. 289 U. S. 351.

6. Much weight is to be given to the practical interpretation of the Act of 1903 by the Department of Agriculture through its acquiescence in state measures to suppress the disease involved in this case. P. 289 U. S. 351.

7. Oregon-Washington R. & N. Co. v. Washington, 270 U. S. 87, distinguished. P. 289 U. S. 351.

2 F.Supp. 700 affirmed.

Appeal from a decree of the three-judge district court denying a temporary injunction and dismissing the bill in a suit to restrain a state official from preventing the importation of plaintiffs' cattle.

Page 289 U. S. 347