Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co. v. Kentucky

after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

This case turns exclusively upon the question whether the separate coach law of Kentucky be an infringement upon the exclusive power of Congress to regulate' interstate commerce. The law in broad terms requires all railroad companies operating roads within the State of Kentucky, whether upon lines owned or leased by them, as well as all foreign companies operating roads within the State, to furnish separate coaches or cars for the travel or transportation of white and colored passengers upon their respective lines of railroad, and to post in some conspicuous place upon eaéh coach appropriate words in plain letters indicating the race for which it is set apart.

Of course, this law is operative only within the State. It would be satisfied if the defendant, which operates a continuous fine of railway from Newport News, Virginia, to Louisville, Kentucky, should take on its westward bound trains a separate coach or coaches for colored people at its first station in Kentucky, and continue the same to Louisville; and upon its eastward bound trains.take off such coach at the same station before leaving the State. The real question is whether a proper construction of the act confines its operation to passengers whose journeys commence and end within the boundaries of the State, or whether a reasonable interpretation of the act requires colored passengers to be assigned to separate coaches when traveling from or to points in other States.

Similar questions have arisen several times in this court. In Hall v. De Cuir, 95 U. S. 485 , 489, an act of the general as

In Louisville &c. Railway Company v. Mississippi, 133 U. S. 587 , 591, an act of the legislature of Mississippi required almost in the terms of the Kentucky act that “ all railroads carrying passengers in this State . . . shall provide equal, but separate, accommodations for the white and colored races, by providing two or more passenger cars for each passenger train, or by dividing the passenger cars by a partition, so as to secure separate accommodations.” The road was indicted for a violation of the statute in failing to provide separate accommodations for the two races. It will be observed that it was not a civil action brought by an individual to recover damages for being compelled to occupy one particular compartment, or for being prevented from riding on the train; but in that case, as in this, the prosecution was public. As the Supreme Court of Mississippi had held that the statute applied solely to commerce within the State, 66 Miss. 662 , that construction was accepted as conclu

In Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U. S. 537 , the petitioner Plessy had engaged and paid’for a first-class passage on the East Louisiana Railway from New Orleans to Covington in the same State, took possession of a vacant seat in the coach where white passengers were accommodated, and was ejected therefrom under the separate coach law of Louisiana, which was practically in the same terms as the statute of Kentucky under consideration. Upon being subjected to a criminal charge, he applied for. a writ of prohibition upon the ground of the unconstitutionality of the act. The Supreme Court of Louisiana held the law to be constitutional and denied the prohibition. On writ of error from this court, it was held. that no question of interference with interstate commerce could possibly arise, since the East Louisiana Bailway was purely a local line, with both its termini within the State of Louisiana. Indeed, the act was not claimed to be unconstitutional as an interference with interstate commerce, but its invalidity was urged upon the ground that it abridged the privileges or immunities of citizens, deprived the

As already stated, the Court of Appeals of Kentucky did not discuss the constitutionality of the act in question, but held itself concluded by its previous opinion in the Lander case. That was an action instituted by Lander and his wife against the receiver of the Ohio Valley Kailway, running from Evansville, Indiana, to Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Plaintiff’s wife, who was joined with him in the suit, purchased a first-class ticket from Hopkinsville to Mayfield, both within the State of Kentucky; took her place in what was called the “ ladies’ coach ” and was ejected therefrom by the conductor and assigned a seat in a smoking car, which was alleged to be small, badly ventilated, unclean, and fitted with greatly inferior accommodations. It was held by the Court of Appeals that the decisions of this court in Louisville, New Orleans &c. Railway v. Mississippi, 133 U. S. 587 , and Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U. S. 537 , were conclusive of the constitutionality of the act so far as plaintiffs were concerned; and that the mere fact that the railroad extended to Evansville, in the State of Indiana, could in nowise render the statute in question invalid as to the duty of the railroad to respect it. It was urged in that case, as it is in this, that the act undertook to regulate or control as to interstate passengers, and that that portion of the statute was invalid, as being in conflict with the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution; and, further, that the act was inseparable, and, therefore, must all be held invalid. In disposing of this the court observed : “We do not think that such contention is tenable. It seems to us that such contention is in conflict with the decision hereinbefore referred to, (in the Mississippi case,) and also in conflict with the well-settled rules of construction.” In winding up its opinion the court made the following observation : “ If it were conceded (which it is not) that the statute is invalid as to interstate passengers., the proper construction to be given it would then be that the legislature did not so intend it, but only intended it to apply to transportation within the

This ruling effectually disposes of the argument that the act must be construed to regulate the travel or transportation on railroads of all white and colored passengers, while they are in the State, without reference to where their journey commences and ends, and of the further contention that the policy would not have been adopted if the act had been confined to that portion of the travel which commenced and ended within the state lines. Indeed, it places the Court of Appeals of Kentucky in line with the Supreme Court of Mississippi in Louisville &c. Railway Co. v. Mississippi, 66 Mississippi, 662, which had held the separate coach law of that State valid as applied to domestic commerce. Granting that the last sentence from the opinion of the Court of Appeals, above cited, would seem to justify the railroad in placing interstate colored passengers in separate coaches, we think that this prosecution does not necessarily involve that question, and that the act must stand, so far as it is applicable to passengers traveling between two points in the State.

Indeed, we are by no means satisfied' that the Court of Appeals did not give the correct construction to this statute in limiting its operation to domestic commerce. It is scarcely courteous to impute to a legislature the enactment of á law which it knew to be unconstitutional, and if it were well' settled that a separate coach law was unconstitutional, as applied, to interstate commerce, the law applying on its face to all passengers should be limited to such as the legislature were competent to deal with. The Court of Appeals has found such to be the intention of the General Assembly in this case, or at least, that if such were not its intention, the law may be supported as applying alone to domestic commerce. In thus holding the act to be severable, it is laying down a principle of construction from which there is no appeal.

While we do not deny the force of the railroad’s argument

The judgment of the Court of Appeals is, therefore,

Affirmed.

Me. Justice Harlan dissented.