[336] Mobile County v. Kimball, 102 U.S. 691, 696, 697 (1881).
[337] Second Employers' Liability Cases, 223 U.S. 1, 47, 53-54 (1912).
[338] The above case. And see [infra].
[339] 9 Wheat. 1, 217, 221 (1824).
[340] Pensacola Teleg. Co. v. Western Union Teleg. Co., 96 U.S. 1 (1878). See also Western Union Teleg. Co. v. Texas, 105 U.S. 460 (1882).
[341] Ibid. 9. "Commerce embraces appliances necessarily employed in carrying on transportation by land and water."—Chicago & N.W.R. Co. v. Fuller, 17 Wall. 560, 568 (1873).
[342] "No question is presented as to the power of the Congress, in its regulation of interstate commerce, to regulate radio communications." Chief Justice Hughes speaking for the Court in Federal Radio Com v. Nelson Bros. B. & M. Co., 289 U.S. 266, 279 (1933). Said Justice Stone, speaking for the Court in 1936: "Appellant is thus engaged in the business of transmitting advertising programs from its stations in Washington to those persons in other States who 'listen in' through the use of receiving sets. In all essentials its procedure does not differ from that employed in sending telegraph or telephone messages across State lines, which is interstate commerce. Western Union Teleg. Co. v. Speight, 254 U.S. 17 (1920); New Jersey Bell Teleph. Co. v. State Bd. of Taxes & Assessments, 280 U.S. 338 (1930); Cooney v. Mountain States Teleph. & Teleg. Co., 294 U.S. 384 (1935); Pacific Teleph. & Teleg. Co. v. Tax Commission, 297 U.S. 403 (1936). In each, transmission is effected by means of energy manifestations produced at the point of reception in one State which are generated and controlled at the sending point in another. Whether the transmission is effected by the aid of wires, or through a perhaps less well understood medium, 'the ether,' is immaterial, in the light of those practical considerations which have dictated the conclusion that the transmission of information interstate is a form of 'intercourse,' which is commerce. See Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 189." Fisher's Blend Station v. Tax Commission, 297 U.S. 650, 654-655 (1936).
[343] 13 How. 518.
[344] 10 Stat. 112 (1852).
[345] Pennsylvania v. Wheeling & Belmont Bridge Co., 18 How. 421, 430 (1856). "It is Congress, and not the Judicial Department, to which the Constitution has given the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States. The courts can never take the initiative on this subject." Parkersburg & O. River Transportation Co. v. Parkersburg, 107 U.S. 691, 701 (1883). See also Prudential Insurance Co. v. Benjamin, 328 U.S. 408 (1946); and Robertson v. California, 328 U.S. 440 (1946).