United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Clason v. Indiana, 306 U.S. 439 (1939)

Clason v. Indiana

No. 517

Argued March 10, 1939

Decided March 27, 1939

306 U.S. 439

Syllabus

An Indiana statute provides that the bodies of large dead animals (not slaughtered for human food) shall be promptly burnt or buried by the owners, on their premises, or be there by them delivered to the representative of a disposal plant licensed to do business within the State and be promptly carried to such plant in a sanitary vehicle and speedily rendered innocuous.

Held:

1. That it is a comprehensive, practical public health measure within the power of the State. P. 306 U. S. 441.

2. Permission to the owners to sell the carcasses to the licensed operators for disposition under the Act is not a precondition by the State that such dead animals are legitimate articles of commerce. P 306 U. S. 443.

3. Prohibition against hauling such bodies on state highways except under license to a licensed disposal point in the State, thereby preventing their transportation out of the State to be sold, which is not licensable under the Act, is not repugnant to the commerce clause. P. 306 U. S. 443.

4. The mere power of the Federal Government to regulate interstate commerce does not disable the States from adopting reasonable measures designed to secure the health and comfort of their people. P. 306 U. S. 444

214 Ind. 630; 17 N.E.2d 92, affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment sustaining a conviction of violation of the Indiana Animals Disposal Act of March 12, 1937, by transporting a dead horse over a highway of that State and into Illinois without license.

Page 306 U. S. 440