CAMPBELL, COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE OF GEORGIA, ET AL. v. HUSSEY ET AL.
No. 42
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 14-15, 1961.—Decided December 18, 1961.
368 U.S. 297
Homer S. Durden, Jr. argued the cause for appellees. With him on the brief were Darius N. Brown and William J. Neville.
MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a suit brought by owners and operators of tobacco warehouses in Georgia to enjoin officials of Georgia from enforcing certain provisions of the Georgia Tobacco Identification Act. Ga. Laws 1960, No. 557, p. 214. A three-judge court was convened,
The provisions of the Georgia Act that are challenged concern type 14 flue-cured leaf tobacco. It is defined in § 1 of the Act as “that flue-cured leaf tobacco grown in the traditional loose-leaf area which consists of the State[s] of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.” By § 13 (A) of the Act type 14 tobacco received in a warehouse for sale2 shall be marked with a “white sheet ticket.”
Sales at these warehouses are sales within the competence of Congress to regulate. As stated in Mulford v. Smith, 307 U. S. 38, 47: “In Georgia nearly one hundred per cent. of the tobacco so sold is purchased by extra-state purchasers. In markets where tobacco is sold to both
Congress in 1935 enacted the Tobacco Inspection Act, 49 Stat. 731,
“. . . the classification of tobacco according to type, grade, and other characteristics affects the prices received therefor by producers; without uniform standards of classification and inspection the evaluation of tobacco is susceptible to speculation, manipulation, and control, and unreasonable fluctuations in prices and quality determinations occur which are detrimental to producers and persons handling tobacco in commerce; such fluctuations constitute a burden upon commerce and make the use of uniform standards of classification and inspection imperative for the protection of producers and others engaged in commerce and the public interest therein.” (Italics added.)
By
Detailed standards have been prescribed by the Secretary. As to the “type” of tobacco, the regulations state:
“. . . Tobacco which has the same characteristics and corresponding qualities, colors, and lengths shall be treated as one type, regardless of any factors of historical or geographical nature which cannot be determined by an examination of the tobacco.”
7 CFR, 1961 Cum. Supp., § 29.1096 . (Italics added.)
Type 14 is defined as “That type of flue-cured tobacco commonly known as Southern Flue-cured or New Belt
The regulations also provide that the classification of the tobacco by type be placed on a federal inspection certificate and announced at the time the lot is offered in the auction (
The question is whether the federal scheme of regulation has left room for Georgia to identify type 14 tobacco with a white tag when it is grown in Georgia, Florida, or Alabama.
It is earnestly argued that there is no conflict between Georgia‘s regulation and the federal law, as all that Georgia requires is that type 14 tobacco, grown in Georgia, be labeled as such. In that connection it is pointed out that type 14 tobacco as defined by the federal regulations includes tobacco “produced principally” in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama and that labeling it by its geographical origin merely supplements the federal regulation and does not conflict with it.
We do not have here the question whether Georgia‘s law conflicts with the federal law. Rather we have the question of pre-emption. Under the federal law there can be but one “official” standard—one that is “uniform” and that eliminates all confusion “by classifying tobacco
The Act, as we have seen, adopts that view by making the “type, grade, size, condition” given inspected tobacco “the official standards of the United States.”
We have then a case where the federal law excludes local regulation, even though the latter does no more than supplement the former. Under the definition of types or grades of tobacco and the labeling which the Federal Government has adopted, complementary state regulation is as fatal as state regulations which conflict with the federal scheme. Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Porter, 273 U. S. 341, 346; Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U. S. 218, 230; Hood & Sons v. Du Mond, 336 U. S. 525, 543.
Affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE WHITTAKER concurs in the result.
Dissenting opinion of MR. JUSTICE BLACK, joined by MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER and MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, announced by MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER.
Acting under unchallenged authority granted him by the Federal Tobacco Inspection Act1 to classify tobacco
Type 14 flue-cured tobacco, as defined in the official Department of Agriculture regulation, is:
“That type of flue-cured tobacco commonly known as Southern Flue-cured or New Belt of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, produced principally in the southern section of Georgia and to some extent in Florida and Alabama.”4
While § 8 of the Federal Act requires tobacco sold at designated auction markets to bear a tag showing the Department of Agriculture‘s official grade, it contains no such requirement for a tag showing its official type.5
“Type 14 flue-cured leaf tobacco as used herein shall mean that flue-cured leaf tobacco grown in the traditional loose-leaf area which consists of the State[s] of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.”7
Despite the variations in their wordings, it is obvious that there is no conflict between this Georgia law and the regulation of the Department of Agriculture and that the definitions of Type 14 tobacco in the Georgia law and the federal regulation mean precisely the same thing—namely, that tobacco grown in Georgia, Florida and Alabama, and that tobacco only, can be classified as Type 14. Whatever doubt might otherwise have existed on this score is completely dispelled by the record in this case. For the parties to this lawsuit, who have lived under and can be presumed to be familiar with the Department of
The Court is therefore compelled to decide this case, as to me it apparently does, on the premise that the Georgia definition of Type 14 tobacco is not in conflict with, but rather is precisely the same as, the federal definition. Consequently, the Court must accept as an undoubted fact that the full effect of the Georgia law is simply to assure that bidders at Georgia auction markets located in the Type 14 area will be able to distinguish between officially classified Type 14 tobacco, grown only in Georgia, Florida and Alabama, and other types of tobacco grown in other States. Since the conceded basic purpose of the Federal Act itself was to assure that tobacco growers and buyers would have as much information as possible about the commercial qualities of tobacco sold on auction markets, the Court must also admit that this Georgia law is designed to and does help to effectuate the Federal Act and to secure all of the benefits of that Act‘s official tobacco type classifications. At least as early in the history of this country as 1619, when Virginia passed its first tobacco inspection act, the States have sought to protect honest sellers of tobacco from those who were
In so holding it seems to me that the Court departs drastically from its long-continued practice of not striking down state laws as unconstitutional except where such decisions are compelled by considerations which are manifest and clear after careful study and analysis of the issues involved. Here the Court‘s opinion presents not so much as one fact which indicates that Congress actually intended by the passage of the Federal Act to preclude the States from passing laws which require only that warehousemen place a label on each lot of tobacco offered for sale truthfully showing its official federal type. Indeed, the Court even cites two prior cases in which this Court, in dealing with this very same Federal Act, has explicitly recognized that there is no basis whatever finding of a congressional intent to pre-empt merely complementary state legislation. In Townsend v. Yeomans,12 Mr. Chief Justice Hughes, after a full canvass of the language, history and purpose of the Federal Act and of tobacco inspection laws generally, rejected for the Court the contention that this Act precluded a Georgia law regulating the charges of warehousemen operating under the Act, pointing out that the federal law “had a limited objective,” and going on to say:
“Instead of frustrating the operation of such state laws, the provisions of the Act expressly afforded and
emphasized the opportunity for coöperation with the States in protecting the farmer‘s interests. In this view we find no ground for the contention that Congress has taken possession of the field of regulation to the exclusion of state laws which do not conflict with its own requirements.”13
This statement was reiterated and buttressed when, two years later, the Court was called upon to pass on the constitutionality of the Tobacco Inspection Act in Currin v. Wallace.14 Mr. Chief Justice Hughes, again speaking for the Court, expressly adhered to the view the Court had earlier taken of the Act:
“But [in Townsend v. Yeomans] we found nothing in the federal Act which undertook to regulate the charges of warehousemen and hence we concluded that Congress had restricted its requirements and left the State free to deal with the matters not covered by the federal legislation and not inconsistent therewith.”15
I think it plain that the Court was entirely correct in the Townsend and Currin cases. There is not a word in the Tobacco Inspection Act nor anything that has been cited in its legislative history that indicates a clear and manifest purpose on the part of Congress to preclude the exercise by Georgia of the historic power of States to pass local legislation to protect the integrity of its tobacco on the market and to prevent the commission of fraud upon buyers who come to deal in tobacco within its borders. The purpose of the Federal Act, as plainly disclosed both in its language and legislative history, was to promote the dissemination of information on the tobacco market, not to restrict the availability of such
The whole structure of the Federal Act plainly shows, I think, that, far from precluding this sort of state cooperation in the effectuation of the federal purpose, Congress affirmatively intended and, as pointed out by Mr. Chief Justice Hughes in the Townsend and Currin cases, actually hoped for such cooperation. The Tobacco Inspection Act is not one that forces federal regulation on unwilling local communities. Before the Secretary of Agriculture can designate “auction markets” upon which
Insofar as the Court even bothers here to take a fresh look at the specific language and legislative history of the Federal Act, it does so, not for the purpose of re-evaluating the correctness of the understanding of the Act set forth in the Townsend and Currin cases, but solely for the purpose of showing that the Federal Act was designed to set up “uniform standards of classification and inspection” for tobacco to be sold at federally designated warehouses—a fact which I certainly do not controvert and which, so far as I know, none of the parties to this lawsuit has controverted. The Court makes no attempt to relate this fact to the issue in this case and show just how this congressional purpose supports an inference that Congress intended to preclude the States from requiring that the “uniform standards of classification” so established and applied by official federal inspection be disclosed on each lot of tobacco sold. Instead, the Court
Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Porter,19 the first case cited by the Court, did make the statement that state laws “cannot be applied in coincidence with, as complementary to or as in opposition to, federal enactments which disclose the intention of Congress to enter a field of regulation that is within its jurisdiction.” But this statement was made only after the Court had discussed the congressional act involved there in great detail and found Congress to have concluded that “no other regulation is necessary.”20 That the Court in Missouri Pacific did not intend to go outside of the facts there before it and lay down a rule of automatic pre-emption by “coincidence” is plainly shown by the authorities relied upon to support its passing reference. The first case cited, Napier v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.,21 is typical. In Napier, Mr. Justice Brandeis, in his usual careful way, declared that in considering the question of pre-emption “The intention of Congress to exclude States from exerting their police power must be clearly manifested . . . .”22 The Missouri Pacific case can therefore support pre-emption only upon the basis of congressional intent and does not lend the slightest support to the mechanistic pre-emption rule which the Court applies here.
“Congress legislated here in a field which the States have traditionally occupied. . . . So we start with the assumption that the historic police powers of the States were not to be superseded by the Federal Act unless that was the clear and manifest purpose of Congress.”
More importantly, the Court did not in Santa Fe Elevator treat the question of pre-emption as one which could be settled by application of the rigid formula used here to strike down this Georgia law. Quite the contrary, recognizing that pre-emption is “often a perplexing question” the Court analyzed the issue before it at great length and concluded that Congress intended to pre-empt the supplementary state regulation there involved only after demonstrating that the language of the Warehouse Act as amended, “the special and peculiar history” of the amendment to the Act, and the underlying purpose of the Act all manifested a clear congressional purpose to pre-empt all state action in the field. Far from supporting the mechanical formula used by the Court here to declare Georgia‘s law unconstitutional, Santa Fe Elevator stands as a clear refutation of that formula, and contains a very clear statement of the proper rule which before today has governed this Court‘s holdings on pre-emption—the rule that pre-emption of the historic police powers of the States can be found only where “that was the clear and manifest purpose of Congress.”
Just a few weeks after the decision in Hood & Sons v. Du Mond, however, this Court did, in California v. Zook,26 specifically deal with the argument “that when Congress has made specified activity unlawful, ‘coincidence is as ineffective as opposition,’ and state laws ‘aiding’ enforcement are invalid.” The Court there emphatically rejected the idea that identity of purpose between a federal and a state statute meant “the automatic invalidity of state measures.” It treated coincidence as only one factor in the complicated pattern of facts relevant to the question of pre-emption, pointing out, in the words of Mr. Justice Holmes, that this is a question which “must be answered by a judgment upon the particular case.”27 A dissent in the Zook case, written by Mr. Justice Burton
The correct test in determining whether a federal act results in pre-emption is that stated in Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator, which requires that “the historic police powers of the States . . . not . . . be superseded by the Federal Act unless that was the clear and manifest purpose of Congress.”29 Measured by that test, the Georgia law here cannot be invalidated.30
“The legislature of the State of Maryland, from the earliest history of the colony and since the formation of the State government, has made the inspection of tobacco raised in that State compulsory. That inspection has included many features, and has extended to the form, size, and weight of the packages containing tobacco, as well as to the quality of the article. Fixing the identity and weight of tobacco alleged to have been grown in the State, and thus preserving the reputation of the article in markets outside of the State, is a legitimate part of inspection laws, and the means prescribed therefor in the statutes in question naturally conduce to that end.”