On the other side of the ledger appear the following cases, decided contemporaneously with those just reviewed: one in 1942 in which it was held that a gas company engaged in the business of piping natural gas from without the State of Illinois and selling it wholesale to distributors in that State was subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Power Commission under the Natural Gas Act,[1016] and hence could not be required by the Illinois Commerce Commission to extend its facilities in the absence of a certificate of convenience from the Federal Power Commission;[1017] one, in the same year, in which it was held, by a sharply divided Court, that federal regulation of the production of renovated butter under the Internal Revenue Code[1018] prevented the State of Alabama from inspecting, seizing and detaining stock butter from which such butter was made, some of it being intended for interstate commerce;[1019] one in 1947 holding that the United States Warehouse Act, as amended,[1020] must be construed as superseding State authority to regulate licenses thereunder, and hence overruled the stricter requirements of Illinois law dealing with such subject as rate discrimination, the dual position of grain warehousemen storing their own grain, the mixing of inferior grain owned by the warehousemen with superior grain of other users of the facility, delay in loading grain, the sacrificing or rebating of storage charges, retraining desirable transit tonnage, utilizing preferred storage space, maintenance of unsafe and inadequate grain elevators, inadequate and ineffectual warehouse service, the obtaining of a license, the abandonment of warehousing service, and the rendition of warehousing service without filing and publishing rate schedules;[1021] one decided the same year in which it was held that the authority of the Federal Power Commission under the Natural Gas Act[1022] extended to and superseded State regulatory power over sales made within a State by a natural gas producing company to pipe line companies which transported the purchased gas to markets in other States;[1023] one in 1948, in which a sharply divided Court held that Michigan law governing the rights of dissenting stockholders could not be applied to embarrass a merger agreement between two railroad companies which had been approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission under the Interstate Commerce Act[1024] as "just and reasonable";[1025] and finally one decided the same year in which it was held by a unanimous Court that the Interstate Commerce Commission may, in approving the acquisition by a railroad corporation of one State of railroad lines in another, relieve such corporation from being incorporated under the laws of the latter State.[1026]
FEDERAL VERSUS STATE LABOR LAWS
One group of cases, which has caused the Court some difficulty and its attitude in which has perhaps shifted in some measure, deals with the question of the effect of the Wagner, and, latterly, of the Taft-Hartley Act on State power to govern labor union activities. In a case decided in 1945[1027] it was held that a Florida statute which required business agents of a union operating in the State to file annual reports and pay an annual fee of one dollar conflicted with the Wagner Act,[1028] standing, as the Court put it, "'as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.'"[1029] In two cases decided in 1949, however, State legislation regulative of labor relations was sustained. In one a "cease and desist" order of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board[1030] implementing the State Employment Peace Act, which made it an unfair labor practice for an employee to interfere with production except by leaving the premises in an orderly manner for the purpose of going on strike, was found not to conflict with either the Wagner or the Taft-Hartley Act,[1031] both of which, the Court asserted, designedly left open an area for State control. In the other,[1032] the Wisconsin board, acting under the same statute, was held to be within its powers in labelling as "an unfair labor practice" the discharge by an employer of an employee under a maintenance of membership clause which had been inserted in the contract of employment in 1943 under pressure from the National War Labor Board, but which was contrary to provisions of the Wisconsin Act. On the other hand, in 1950, the Court invalidated a Michigan mediation statute, and in 1951, a Wisconsin Public Utility Anti-Strike Act, on the ground that these matters were governed by the policies embodied in the Wagner and Taft-Hartley Acts.[1033]
Commerce With Indian Tribes
UNITED STATES v. KAGAMA
Congress is given power to regulate commerce "with the Indian tribes." Faced in 1886 with a Congressional enactment which prescribed a system of criminal laws for Indians living on their reservations, the Court rejected the government's argument which sought to base the act on the commerce clause. It sustained the act, however, on the following grounds: "From their very weakness and helplessness, so largely due to the course of dealing of the Federal Government with them and the treaties in which it has been promised, there arises the duty of protection, and with it the power. This has always been recognized by the Executive and by Congress, and by this Court, whenever the question has arisen. * * * The power of the General Government over these remnants of a race once powerful, now weak and diminished in numbers, is necessary to their protection, as well as to the safety of those among whom they dwell. It must exist in that government, because it never has existed anywhere else, because the theatre of its exercise is within the geographical limits of the United States, because it has never been denied, and because it alone can enforce its laws on all the tribes." Moreover, such power was operative within the States.[1034]
Obviously, this line of reasoning renders the commerce clause superfluous as a source of power over the Indian tribes; and some years earlier, in 1871, Congress had forbidden the further making of treaties with them.[1035] However, by a characteristic judicial device the effort has been made at times to absorb the doctrine of the Kagama case into the commerce clause,[1036] although more commonly the Court, in sustaining Congressional legislation, prefers to treat the commerce clause and "the recognized relations of tribal Indians," as joint sources of Congress's power.[1037] Most of the cases have arisen, in fact, in connection with efforts by Congress to ban the traffic in "fire water" with tribal Indians. In this connection it has been held that even though an Indian has become a citizen, yet so long as he remains a member of his tribe, under the charge of an Indian agent, and so long as the United States holds in trust the title to land which has been allotted him, Congress can forbid the sale of intoxicants to him.[1038] Also Congress can prohibit the introduction of intoxicating liquors into land occupied by a tribe of uncivilized Indians within territory admitted to statehood.[1039] Nor can a State withdraw Indians within its borders from the operation of acts of Congress regulating trade with them by conferring on them rights of citizenship and suffrage, whether by its constitution or its statutes.[1040] And when a State is admitted into the Union Congress may, in the enabling act, reserve authority to legislate in the future respecting the Indians residing within the new State, and may declare that existing acts of Congress relating to traffic and intercourse with them shall remain in force.[1041]
Clause 4. The Congress shall have Power * * * To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States.
Naturalization and Citizenship