CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - COMMERCE CLAUSE - REGULATION OF RENOVATED BUTTER MANUFACTURE

Authors

Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

Plaintiff, who was engaged in the manufacture of renovated butter from packing stock butter, brought an action to enjoin Alabama officials from enforcing state laws relating to the inspection and seizure of the raw material. Plaintiff contended that since the production of renovated butter was taxed and regulated by the United States, state action was excluded. The federal act conferred upon the Secretary of Agriculture, among other things the duty of ascertaining "whether or not materials used in the manufacture of said process or renovated butter are deleterious to health or unwholesome in the finished product, and in case such deleterious or unwholesome materials are found to be used in product intended for exportation or shipment into other States or in course of exportation or shipment he shall have power to confiscate the same." The Secretary of Agriculture could not condemn the packing stock butter, whereas the state statute authorized the state commissioner to condemn it when held for renovation. The district court refused an injunction. Held, reversed. Since there was federal supervision of the materials and composition of the manufactured goods, similar state regulation of the same subject was precluded. Cloverleaf Butter Co. v. Patterson, (U. S. 1942) 62 S. Ct. 491.

Recommended Citation

Michigan Law Review, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - COMMERCE CLAUSE - REGULATION OF RENOVATED BUTTER MANUFACTURE, 40 Mich. L. Rev. 1099 (1942).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol40/iss7/9