Page:Henry Osborn Taylor, A Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations (5th ed, 1905).djvu/479

 CHAP. VIII.] CORPORATION AND STATE. [§ 46%. tinct classes, between which the division is fundamental. The first class springs from the relations between the Federal government and the states ; the second from the relations be- tween the individual or corporation whose property is regu- lated or taken, and the government, state or Federal, taking or regulating it. The one class is based on political considera- tions, the other on requirements of justice. § 4:69b. Limitations of the first class apply to the exercise of all three powers. Within the range of its constitutional powers the Federal government is superior to the state gov- ernments. 1 The constitution declares this ; 2 and that it should be so is essential to the existence of the Federal gov- ernment as the government of a nation of which the states are constituent parts. Consequently, wherever there is concur- rent authority in the Federal and state governments, and the Federal government legislates, state laws in so far as incon- sistent must yield. Certain powers moreover, conferred on Congress, are essentially exclusive, even while unexercised, as for instance the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the states. Therefore state legislation can not extend within their domain, and besides this, the Federal constitution in close connection with these exclusive powers of Congress, places certain express prohibitions on the states, for- bidding them, for instance, to lay imposts or duties on exports and imports. Nevertheless, the Federal government, though supreme within its sphere, possesses only such powers as are conferred on it by the constitution ; and Federal legislation beyond the scope of these powers is void. 3 The second class of restrictions is summed up in the two 1 Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 210; Tennessee v. Davis, 100 U. S. 257,263; Railway Co. v. Hafley, 158 U. S. 98. See Trans. Co. v. Wheel- ing, 99 U. S. 273, 281. 2 Art'. VI. § 2. 3 An act of Congress making it a misdemeanor to mix for sale naphtha and illuminating oils, or to sell or offer such mixture for sale, is a police regulation, relating exclusively to the internal trade of the states, and can only have effect where the legis- lative authority of Congress excludes territorially all state legislation, as, e. g., in the District of Columbia. Within state limits it can have no constitutional operation. United States v. Dewitt, 9 Wall. 41. Prop- erty covered by letters-patent is sub- ject to regulation by police powers of a state, like other property. Pat- terson v. Kentucky, 97 U. S. 501. 459