Gibbons v. Ogden

The Court held that navigation between states is interstate commerce subject to congressional regulation, displacing state-granted monopolies.

Overview

Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston held a New York steamboat monopoly that Aaron Ogden licensed, while Thomas Gibbons operated under a federal coastal license. Chief Justice Marshall defined commerce as commercial intercourse extending to navigation and held that the Commerce Clause vests in Congress the power to regulate commerce among the several states, which states cannot override. Although the Court acknowledged state police powers, it struck the monopoly as conflicting with federal law. Gibbons became the seedbed of modern commerce clause doctrine, from antitrust and labor regulation to civil rights statutes.