ADMINISTRATIVE LAW - JOHNSON ACT - JURISDICTION OF FEDERAL COURTS TO GRANT INJUNCTIONS AGAINST ENFORCEMENT OF RATE ORDERS OF STATE COMMISSIONS

Authors

Donald L. Quaife, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

Two years have elapsed since the passage of the Johnson Act restricting the jurisdiction of federal district courts to enjoin rate-making orders of state utility commissions; and the time is now ripe to survey the case law which has grown up under the act and to evaluate its results. It will be recalled that this statute came as the culmination of a long history of agitation to prevent federal court interference with what many believed to be a function which local state courts were better fitted to review. The interference aimed at had resulted from the amendment to the Judiciary Act in 1875, which for the first time gave to the federal courts jurisdiction in cases arising under the Constitution. In a few years' time, resort to the federal courts became the ordinary mode of seeking relief on the part of utilities which felt rate orders and other orders promulgated by state commissions to be confiscatory. Among the criticisms levelled at such procedure were (1) that federal trials consumed too much time, during which economic conditions frequently changed; (2) that such litigation was unduly expensive, since the court could not utilize the record of the hearing before the state commission but had to take evidence de novo; (3) that the burden upon federal courts was too heavy; (4) that the problems involved in rate regulation were largely local and would be better understood by state judges; and (5) that federal judges were too inclined to favor the vested interests. Steps which had been taken prior to the Johnson Act to correct the alleged evils were felt to be inadequate, and accordingly Congress passed the Johnson Act, which, with certain exceptions, took away the jurisdiction of the district courts to grant injunctions restraining state utilities commissions from enforcing their rate orders where there has been a "reasonable notice and hearing, and where a plain, speedy, and efficient remedy may be had at law or in equity in the courts of such state."

Recommended Citation

Donald L. Quaife, ADMINISTRATIVE LAW - JOHNSON ACT - JURISDICTION OF FEDERAL COURTS TO GRANT INJUNCTIONS AGAINST ENFORCEMENT OF RATE ORDERS OF STATE COMMISSIONS, 35 Mich. L. Rev. 274 (1936).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol35/iss2/4