| Italic Title: | force |
| Litigants: | Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois |
| Arguedatea: | April 14 |
| Arguedateb: | 15 |
| Argueyear: | 1886 |
| Decidedate: | October 25 |
| Decideyear: | 1886 |
| Fullname: | Wabash, St. L. & P. Ry. Co. v. People of State of Illinois |
| Usvol: | 118 |
| Uspage: | 557 |
| Parallelcitations: | 7 S. Ct. 4; 30 L. Ed. 244 |
| Holding: | The Court held that Illinois had violated the Commerce Clause by placing a direct burden on interstate commerce. Under the Commerce Clause only Congress had the power to do so and states could only place indirect burdens on commerce. |
| Majority: | Miller |
| Joinmajority: | Field, Harlan, Woods, Matthews, Blatchford |
| Dissent: | Bradley |
| Joindissent: | Waite, Gray |
| Lawsapplied: | U.S. Const. amend. XIV |
| Overturned Previous Case: | Munn v. Illinois (1877) |
Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois, 118 U.S. 557 (1886), also known as the Wabash Case, was a Supreme Court decision that severely limited the rights of states to control or impede interstate commerce. It led to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
The majority's opinion was written by Justice Samuel Miller; joining him were associate justices Stephen Field, John Harlan, William Woods, Stanley Matthews, and Samuel Blatchford. Dissenting were Chief Justice Morrison Waite and associate justices Joseph Bradley and Horace Gray.[1]
The case was argued on April 14, 1886 - April 15, 1886 and was decided on October 25, 1886, by vote of 6 to 3. Associate Justice Miller wrote for the Court with Associate Justices Field, Harlan, Woods, Matthews, and Blatchford concurring; Associate Justices Bradley and Gray, along with Chief Justice Waite, dissented.
In Wabash, "direct" burdens on interstate commerce were not permitted by the Export Tax Clause of the Constitution (Article I, Section 9); however, those "indirect" burdens were permitted under the Commerce Clause. This was a standard enacted in Cooley v. Board of Wardens (1852).