Judicial control of the Federal Trade Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission, 1920-1930 : a comparative study in the relations of courts to administrative commissions

JUDICIAL CONTROL cretion, and other conceptions of appropriate spheres of authority as between courts and administrative tribunals. The preeminent examples of administrative tribunals in the federal government are the two independently constituted commissions charged with the regulation of trade and transportationthe Federal Trade Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission. A comparative study of the relations of the courts to these commissions affords a stereoscopic view of the evolution of administrative justice in related fields. Legislative policywhich held attention during the closing decades of the nineteenth century and the opening decades of the twentieth -was of first importance, but the realization of that policy through administration, if not a tougher problem, is of no less consequence. The Federal Trade Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission arose from the same political and social movements, the trade commission was modeled after the commerce commission, and their duties and functions are similar in many respects -yet in their present stage of development they differ greatly. An examination of the relations of these commissions to the federal courts with particular reference to the decade 1920-1930 will disclose the nature of the judicial control and the measure of authority allowed the administrative tribunals. First, however, the shifting theory and inarticulate practice in judicial-administrative relations will appear in connection with a survey of the doctrines, principles, and policies under which the commissions have been treated. Brandeis, dissenting, in Crowell v. Benson, 52 S. Ct. 285, 307 (1932). Compare also: "The use of the term 'judicial review' is sometimes misleading. It seems to be loosely applied, not only to the inquiry whether power to act is lawfully vested or exercised, but also to the process of nullifying the administrative action or of substituting a judicial determination in its stead." Powell, Separation of Powers: Administrative Exercise of Legislative and Judicial Power, 28 Pol. Sci. Q. 34, 47 (1918). There is an outline of the various formal methods of judicial review in Isaacs, Judicial Review of Administrative Findings, 30 Yale L. J. 781 (1921), and a more extensive treatment of the methods of control of administration is given in Freund, Administrative Powers over Persons and Property (1928), p. 227 et seq. CHAPTER II POLICY AND DOCTRINE NOTWITHSTANDING the dangers and impracticable uses of doctrine for more than purposes of rationalization, discussions of administrative development ordinarily proceed in terms of the traditional principles and conceptions of public law. Accordingly, the doctrines which have been asserted in the political and judicial treatment of the Federal Trade Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission must be touched upon before examination of the actual operation of the two commissions. There are obvious imperfections in the treatment of doctrine apart from the course of decisions, but a very brief preliminary enumeration and comment should clear the way for a study of judicial control in action -otherwise the problems would remain veiled in customary, but by no means solving, phrases. This volume is a presentation of the doctrinal and practical aspects of the problem of judicial control over administrative boards and commissions. For the purpose of example and to present a stereoscopic view of the development of administrative justice in the United States, the two preeminent and independent commissions of the Federal government charged with the regulation of trade and transportation are treated in some detail. Separate chapters are devoted to the Interstate Commerce Commission from its inception in 1889 and to the Federal Trade Commission from its beginnings in 1914, with particular reference to the relations of these commissions to the courts during the decade from 1920 to 1930 in order to disclose the nature of the judicial control and the measure of authority allowed the administrative bodies. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION CHAPTER II. POLICY AND DOCTRINE CHAPTER III. THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION IN THE COURTS CHAPTER IV. THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION AND THE COURTS CHAPTER V. COMPARISON AND CONCLUSION REFERENCES AND AUTHORITIES INDEX