[tacticalogic]

The Shreveport court tied everything to interstate commerce, not the fact that they were carriers. Otherwise the court would have simply ruled that, since Congress has chosen to regulate the carriers, they may regulate all operations of the carriers irregardless of the effect on commerce. They didn't.

If the court tied everything to interstate commerce regardless of who's doing it, then there would have been no need to establish the railroad as an interstate carrier, yet the bulk of their decision is dedicated to precisely that. Do you think they went through all of that only to get down to the end and say, "But none of that matters anyway, all that really matters is that they're affecting interstate commerce."?

[robertpaulsen]

First, it had to be established why Congress was regulating a railroad and not commerce. Then it had to be established how a railroad's interstate rate affected interstate commerce. Then how a railroad's intrastate rate affected the interstate rate which affected interstate commerce.

All of this groundwork was necessary to determine if Congress was allowed to dictate a railroad's intrastate rate. The important thing was that it was all tied back to interstate commerce.