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47-826: In 1988, the Interstate Commerce Commission ordered the Boston and Maine (B & M) to sell it to Amtrak , with trackage rights staying with the B & M. Amtrak was allowed to sell it to the Central Vermont Railway , part of the Canadian National Railway . The CV obtained the line on September 9. The sale was made because the track condition was not suitable for running Amtrak's Montrealer passenger trains, and Amtrak had to discontinue service on April 5, 1987. Service resumed in July 1989 after Amtrak paid

94-516: A USDOT number and a Motor Carrier (MC) number that replaced the ICC numbers. The ICC served as a model for later regulatory efforts. Unlike, for example, state medical boards (historically administered by the doctors themselves), the seven Interstate Commerce Commissioners and their staffs were full-time regulators who could have no economic ties to the industries they regulated. Since 1887, some state and other federal agencies adopted this structure. And, like

141-448: A decade before[—]could be made acceptable by slow accretion[,] and might prove very useful in the cause of righteousness. As Waite wrote, the voices of two great contemporaries[,] Thomas M. Cooley and Stephen J. Field , must have been echoing in his mind. Cooley′s classic treatise[,] Constitutional Limitations , first published in 1868, had become a canonical text for jurists, and [Cooley's] support of due process in its emerging form gave

188-604: A distinguished American sociologist, and Thomas Benton Cooley , a noted pediatrician. Many of the original tomes memorializing and comprising Cooley's scholarly works are preserved and on display in the Thomas M. Cooley Law School Strosacker Law Library. In 1878, Cooley completed and published his work A Treatise on the Law of Torts or the Wrongs Which Arise Independently of Contract . One edition of Cooley's treatise on

235-618: A new agency, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB), which reviews mergers and acquisitions, rail line abandonments and railroad corporate filings. ICC jurisdiction on rail safety (hours of service rules, equipment and inspection standards) was transferred to the Federal Railroad Administration pursuant to the Federal Railroad Safety Act of 1970. Before the ICC was abolished motor carriers (bus lines, trucking companies) had safety regulations enforced by

282-566: Is recognized by the State Bar of Michigan as a "Michigan Legal Milestone". In 1824, Thomas Cooley was born in Attica, New York , to farmers Thomas Cooley and Rachel Hubbard. He attended Attica Academy and took an interest in the law and literary pursuits. In 1842, he studied law under Theron Strong , who had just completed a term as a U.S. Representative for New York to the House of Representatives of

329-472: Is the full faith and credit clause of the United States Constitution : "[i]n accordance with what is variously known as Conflict of Laws, Comity , or Private International Law, rights acquired under the laws or through the courts of one country may often receive recognition...in the courts of another country, and it is the purpose of [U.S. Const., Art. IV, Sec. 1] to guarantee that this shall be

376-471: Is the same at the state level, though it is probably less pronounced. The Interstate Commerce Commission had a strong influence on the founders of Australia. The Constitution of Australia provides ( §§ 101-104 ; also § 73 ) for the establishment of an Inter-State Commission , modeled after the United States' Interstate Commerce Commission. However, these provisions have largely not been put into practice;

423-701: The Consumer Product Safety Commission (1975). In recent decades, this regulatory structure of independent federal agencies has gone out of fashion. The agencies created after the 1970s generally have single heads appointed by the President and are divisions inside executive Cabinet Departments (e.g., the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (1970) or the Transportation Security Administration (2002)). The trend

470-770: The Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 ("4R Act"), the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 and the Staggers Rail Act of 1980. Senator Fred R. Harris of Oklahoma strongly advocated the abolition of the Commission. In December 1995, when most of the ICC's powers had been eliminated or repealed, Congress finally abolished the agency with the ICC Termination Act of 1995 . Final Chair Gail McDonald oversaw transferring its remaining functions to

517-556: The United States Congress was still free to prefer the Christian religion over other religions, in contrast to modern Constitutional law and interpretation] is also supported by Cooley in his Principles of Constitutional Law , where it is said that the clause forbids 'the setting up of recognition of a state church of special favors and advantages which are denied to others.'" "This assumption," Robert G. McCloskey wrote as to

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564-517: The United States Congress . The next year, he moved to Adrian, Michigan and continued to study law. By 1846, he was admitted to the Michigan bar and married Mary Horton. In addition to his small legal practice, Cooley was active in other intellectual and political pursuits. He wrote poems criticizing slavery and celebrating the European revolutions of 1848 , edited pro-Democratic newspapers, and founded

611-497: The 1930s. Of those lines that survived, the stronger ones were not interested in supporting the weaker ones. Congress repudiated Ripley's Plan with the Transportation Act of 1940, and the consolidation idea was scrapped. Although racial discrimination was never a major focus of its efforts, the ICC had to address civil rights issues when passengers filed complaints. The limitation on railroad rates in 1906-07 depreciated

658-586: The 20th century, several of ICC's authorities were transferred to other federal agencies. The ICC was abolished in 1995, and its remaining functions were transferred to the Surface Transportation Board . The Commission's five members were appointed by the President with the consent of the United States Senate . This was the first independent agency (or so-called Fourth Branch ). The ICC

705-611: The CV to upgrade the line. [1] The companies were unable to agree on a permanent trackage rights agreement, and in 1990, the ICC imposed terms, in which the B&;M could serve all "existing shippers and shippers' facilities" located on the line and in operation during the 12 months prior to the sale to the CV. The New England Central Railroad acquired the line from the CV in 1994, and the Springfield Terminal Railway has since acquired

752-471: The Commission existed between 1913–1920, and 1975–1989, but never assumed the role which Australia's founders had intended for it. Thomas M. Cooley Thomas McIntyre Cooley (January 6, 1824 – September 12, 1898) was an American judge. He was the 25th Justice and a Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court , between 1864 and 1885. He was the father of sociologist Charles Cooley . He

799-765: The Constitutional Limitations Which Rest Upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union , in which he analysed the creation of state constitutions and the enactment of laws. By 1890, the sixth edition was printed. Renowned constitutional law scholar Edward S. Corwin wrote of the extranational judicial recognition (and, of course, that under the United States) of the implementation of, or concurrence with, Article IV , within which

846-471: The ICC to set maximum railroad rates, and extended the agency's authority to cover bridges, terminals, ferries, sleeping cars, express companies and oil pipelines. A long-standing controversy was how to interpret language in the Act that banned long haul-short haul fare discrimination. The Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 addressed this question by strengthening ICC authority over railroad rates. This amendment also expanded

893-417: The ICC's jurisdiction to include regulation of telephone , telegraph and wireless companies. The Valuation Act of 1913 required the ICC to organize a Bureau of Valuation that would assess the value of railroad property. This information would be used to set rates. The Esch-Cummins Act of 1920 expanded the ICC's rate-setting responsibilities, and the agency in turn required updated valuation data from

940-405: The ICC's powers. The ICC became the United States' investigation agency for railroad accidents. Congress expanded the commission's powers through subsequent legislation. The 1893 Railroad Safety Appliance Act gave the ICC jurisdiction over railroad safety, removing this authority from the states, and this was followed with amendments in 1903 and 1910. The Hepburn Act of 1906 authorized

987-785: The ICC, later agencies tended to be organized as multi-headed independent commissions with staggered terms for the commissioners. At the federal level, agencies patterned after the ICC included the Federal Trade Commission (1914), the Federal Communications Commission (1934), the Securities and Exchange Commission (1934), the National Labor Relations Board (1935), the Civil Aeronautics Board (1940), Postal Regulatory Commission (1970) and

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1034-606: The Interstate Commerce Act banned "personal discrimination" and required shipping rates to be "just and reasonable." President Cleveland appointed Thomas M. Cooley as the first chairman of the ICC. Cooley had been Dean of the University of Michigan Law School and Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court . The Commission had a troubled start because the law that created it failed to give it adequate enforcement powers. The Commission is, or can be made, of great use to

1081-558: The Interstate Commerce Commission to prepare and adopt a plan for the consolidation of the railway properties of the United States into a limited number of systems. Between 1920 and 1923, William Z. Ripley , a professor of political economy at Harvard University, wrote up ICC's plan for the regional consolidation of the U.S. railways. His plan became known as the Ripley Plan . In 1929 the ICC published Ripley's Plan under

1128-472: The Michigan branch of the Free Soil Party in 1848. By 1856, he became a Republican . In the 1850s, he slowly built his professional reputation. He was compiler of Michigan statutes and a reporter for the Michigan Supreme Court . In 1859 he moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan and became one of the University of Michigan Law School 's first professors. He would go on to play a major role in the development of

1175-766: The Office of Motor Carriers (OMC) under the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The OMC inherited many of the "Economic" regulations enforced by the ICC in addition to the safety regulations imposed on motor carriers. In January 2000 the OMC became the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), within the U.S. Department of Transportation . Prior to its abolition, the ICC gave identification numbers to motor carriers for which it issued licenses. The identification numbers were generally in

1222-548: The Republican party as a mugwump to support Grover Cleveland in 1884, and later in 1894. This independence may have cost him an appointment to the US Supreme Court. However, he was rewarded politically when in 1887 when President Cleveland nominated him to the Interstate Commerce Commission , one of the first independent agencies of the federal government. With Mary Horton he had six children, including Charles Cooley ,

1269-481: The United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 . The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking ) to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers , including interstate bus lines and telephone companies. Congress expanded ICC authority to regulate other modes of commerce beginning in 1906. Throughout

1316-514: The United States of America . One edition of Cooley's treatise on the subject matter of Constitutional law was published in Boston by Little, Brown and Company in 1891. A Second Edition of the work was completed by a legal scholar and contemporary of Cooley's, Alexis C. Angell, in August, 1891. A third edition was published in Boston by Little, Brown and Company in 1898. In 1868 Cooley published A Treatise on

1363-502: The [American] Civil War , gradually wrote into the common law of the States the principle of " qualified privilege ," which is a notification to plaintiffs in libel [law]suits that if they are unlucky enough to be office holders or office seekers, they must be prepared to shoulder the almost impossible burden of showing defendant's "special malice". Students of Constitutional law and Tort law will note this additional aspect of modern libel law as applied to legal issues intersecting

1410-439: The bicycle railroad. Based on his own testimony and that of a Massachusetts congressman, Boynton won release on May 28, 1920, overcoming testimony of the ICC's chief clerk that Boynton was virtually a daily visitor at ICC offices, seeking Commission adoption of his proposal to revolutionize the railroad industry. Congress passed various deregulation measures in the 1970s and early 1980s which diminished ICC authority, including

1457-732: The case among the States in certain instances." Corwin, or the editors of the 1978 Princeton University Press edition of The Constitution and What it Means Today thereinafter cited the Third Edition of Cooley's Principles of Constitutional Law . Corwin wrote, as to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution (a clause contained within Amendment I ), "[i]t [that Justice Story believed

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1504-514: The comments and comportment of public figures. Within his treatise The General Principles of Constitutional Law in the United States of America , on the subject of municipal corporations , Cooley wrote: It is axiomatic that the management of purely local affairs belongs to the people concerned, not only because of being their own affairs, but because they will best understand, and be most competent to manage them. The continued and permanent existence of local government is, therefore, assumed in all

1551-446: The form of "ICC MC-000000". When the ICC was dissolved, the function of licensing interstate motor carriers was transferred to FMCSA. All interstate motor carriers that transport freight moving across state lines have a USDOT number, such as "USDOT 000000." There are private carriers, e.g. Walmart that move their own freight requiring only a USDOT number, and carriers with authority that haul freight for hire that are still required to have

1598-520: The legal essentiality of the concept due process of law in The American Supreme Court , "was a product[,] no doubt[,] of many converging factors: the multiplication of 'welfare state' threats, the Macedonian cries of the business community and its legal and academic defenders, a growing awareness that an interpretation of due process[,] which seemed impossibly novel[—]and probably unnecessary

1645-559: The railroads. In March 1920, the ICC had Eben Moody Boynton, the inventor of the Boynton Bicycle Railroad , committed as a lunatic to an institution in Washington, D.C. Boynton's monorail electric light rail system, it was reported, had the potential to revolutionize transportation, superseding then-current train travel. ICC officials said that they had Boynton committed because he was "worrying them to death" in his promotion of

1692-582: The railroads. The enlarged process led to a major increase in ICC staff, and the valuations continued for almost 20 years. The valuation process turned out to be of limited use in helping the ICC set rates fairly. In 1934, Congress transferred the telecommunications authority to the new Federal Communications Commission . In 1935, Congress passed the Motor Carrier Act, which extended ICC authority to regulate interstate bus lines and trucking as common carriers. The Transportation Act of 1920 directed

1739-406: The railroads. It satisfies the popular clamor for a government supervision of the railroads, while at the same time that supervision is almost entirely nominal. Following the passage of the 1887 act, the ICC proceeded to set maximum shipping rates for railroads. However, in the late 1890s, several railroads challenged the agency's ratemaking authority in litigation , and the courts severely limited

1786-639: The stamp of scholarly approval to an interpretation that seemed ethically more and more imperative." Corwin, or the editors of the 1978 Princeton University Press edition of The Constitution and What it Means Today , also cited Cooley in Constitutional Limitations . As to Amendment I , as to Freedom of the Press in the United States , Corwin writes: [i]n about half of the State constitutions, our State courts ... [in reference to prevailing attitudes prior to

1833-458: The state constitutions, and is a matter of constitutional right , even when not in terms expressly provided for. It would not be competent to dispense with it by statute . In a contrasting legal theorem to that of Dillon's Rule (which posits that towns and cities have no independent authority except as explicitly or implicitly granted by a state legislature) the Cooley Doctrine proposed

1880-644: The subject matter of tort law was published in Chicago by Callaghan and Company in 1907. A Students' Edition was edited by John Lewis, a legal scholar and contemporary of Cooley. Lewis also wrote A Treatise on the Law of Eminent Domain . As a collegial work, Cooley's treatise on torts made extensive use of citations to case law . Completed in March, 1880, while Dean of the University of Michigan, Cooley had published his treatise The General Principles of Constitutional Law in

1927-576: The title Complete Plan of Consolidation . Numerous hearings were held by ICC regarding the plan under the topic "In the Matter of Consolidation of the Railways of the United States into a Limited Number of Systems". The proposed 21 regional railroads were as follows: There were 100 terminal railroads that were also proposed. Below is a sample: Many small railroads failed during the Great Depression of

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1974-547: The trackage rights assigned to the B&M. [2] Archived 2011-05-17 at the Wayback Machine This United States rail–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about transportation in Vermont is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission ( ICC ) was a regulatory agency in

2021-520: The university and the Law School, serving on faculty until 1884, including a long stint as the law school's dean from 1871 until 1883. in 1864, Cooley was elected to the Supreme Court of Michigan, and served as the chief justice for 20 years. Politically, he remained a Republican, and even considered running for Congress in 1872. However, he maintained a certain independence politically, and bolted from

2068-528: The value of railroad securities, a factor in causing the panic of 1907 . Some economists and historians, such as Milton Friedman assert that existing railroad interests took advantage of ICC regulations to strengthen their control of the industry and prevent competition, constituting regulatory capture . Economist David D. Friedman argues that the ICC always served the railroads as a cartelizing agent and used its authority over other forms of transportation to prevent them, where possible, from undercutting

2115-599: Was a charter member and first chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission (1887). Cooley was appointed Dean of the University of Michigan Law School , a position he held until 1883. Thomas M. Cooley Law School of Lansing, Michigan , founded 1972, was named after Justice Cooley. Also, Cooley High School in Detroit and Cooley Elementary School in Waterford, Michigan are named in Justice Cooley's honor. Justice Cooley

2162-542: Was established by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which was signed into law by President Grover Cleveland . The creation of the commission was the result of widespread and longstanding anti-railroad agitation. Western farmers, specifically those of the Grange Movement , were the dominant force behind the unrest, but Westerners generally — especially those in rural areas — believed that the railroads possessed economic power that they systematically abused. A central issue

2209-439: Was rate discrimination between similarly situated customers and communities. Other potent issues included alleged attempts by railroads to obtain influence over city and state governments and the widespread practice of granting free transportation in the form of yearly passes to opinion leaders (elected officials, newspaper editors, ministers, and so on) so as to dampen any opposition to railroad practices. Various sections of

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