Tuesday, October 15, 2013 It began as a dispute between
competing steamship companies: The state of New York granted
exclusive navigation privileges on all of its waters to one
steamboat firm. The plaintiffs cried foul! This 1824 decision
became a key moment in the ongoing tug-of-war for power between
individual states and the federal government. As distinguished
professor emeritus of law at the University of South Carolina
Herbert Alan Johnson notes in his book Gibbons v. Ogden: John
Marshall, Steamboats and the Commerce Clause, that by applying
the Commerce Clause of the Constitution the Court set a vital
precedent for federal authority. Gibbons v. Ogden heralded the
expansion of entrepreneurship and technology while justifying
federal primacy in the regulation of commerce.