U.S. Supreme Court FOSTER-FOUNTAIN PACKING CO. v. HAYDEL, 278 U.S. 1 (1928)

[Page 278 U.S. 1, 5]

Mr. Justice BUTLER delivered the opinion of the Court.

Appellants, plaintiffs below, are engaged in the business of catching and canning shrimp for shipment and sale in interstate commerce. Appellees, defendants below, are public officers in Louisiana charged with the duty of enforcing Act No. 103, known as the 'Shrimp Act,' passed in July, 1926; so far as material here, it is printed in the margin. [Footnote 1] Plaintiffs sued to enjoin enforcement of certain

[Page 278 U.S. 1, 15]

fines, and the consequent power of the state to follow such property into whatever hands it might pass with the conditions and restrictions deemed necessary for the public interest.'

Manifestly, Louisiana has full power absolutely to forbid interstate shipments of shrimp taken within her territory. These crustaceans belong to her and she may appropriate them for the exclusive use and benefit of citizens. If the state should conclude that the best interests of her people requires all shrimp to be canned or manufactured therein before becoming part of interstate commerce, nothing in the Federal Constitution would prevent appropriate action to that end. This would not interfere with any right guaranteed to an outsider. How wild life may be utilized in order to advantage her own citizens is for the producing state to determine. To enlarge opportunity for employment is one way, and often the most effective way, to promote their welfare.

Certainly, I cannot accept the notion that the record discloses any subterfuge-something resorted to for concealment-by Louisiana. And I think no weight should be given to the gratuitous allegation of such purpose by nonresidents who are seeking to defeat control by the state in order that they may secure benefits for themselves from wild life found therein.

Any profitable discussion of this controversy must take into consideration the marked distinction between game and property subject to absolute ownership. Cases like Dahnke-Walker Co. v. Bondurant, , 42 S. Ct. 106, which concern property of the latter kind are not persuasive here. A state may regulate the sale and transportation of wild things in ways not permissible where wheat is the subject-matter. Geer v. Connecticut, supra; Silz v. Hesterberg, 211 U.S. 31, 41, 29 S. Ct. 10; Clark Distilling Co. v. Western Maryland Railway, , 37 S. Ct. 180, L. R. A. 1917B, 1218, Ann. Cas. 1917B, 845. Footnotes

Footnote 1 'An Act'To declare all shrimp and parts thereof in the waters of the state to be the property of the state of Louisiana, and to provide the manner and extent of their reduction to private ownership; to encourage, protect, conserve, regulate and develop the shrimp industry of the state of Louisiana. ...'Section 1. ... That all salt water shrimp existing in the waters of this state, and the hulls and all parts of said salt water shrimp shall be and are hereby declared to be the property of the state; until the title thereto shall be divested in the manner and form herein authorized and shall be under the exclusive control of the Department of Conservation of the state of Louisiana, until the right of private ownership shall vest therein as herein provided, and that no person, firm or corporation shall catch or have in their possession living or dead, any salt water shrimp, or parts thereof, or purchase, sell, or offer for sale, any such shrimp or parts thereof after same have been caught except as otherwise permitted herein. * *'Section 4. That the right to take salt water shrimp from the waters of this state and the right to can, pack or dry the said shrimp when caught are hereby granted to any resident of this state, to any firm or association composed of residents of this state, or to any corporation domiciled in or organized under the laws of this state, operating a canning or packing factory or drying platform in this state. These rights shall be confined to such persons and corporations and are granted subject to the further conditions hereinafter stipulated. ...'Section 13. All salt water shrimp and the shells or hulls and heads of all salt water shrimp are hereby declared to be the property of the state, and the shells or hulls and heads to be valuable for use as a natural resource of the state as a fertilizer in the state; and it shall therefore and hereafter be unlawful to export from the state of Louisiana any salt water shrimp from which the shell or hull and head shall not have been removed.'In order that all of the inhabitants of the state of Louisiana may enjoy the state's natural food product, it shall be lawful to ship unshelled shrimp from any point in the state of Louisiana to any other point in the state of Louisiana for edible consumption, subject to such regulations and restrictions as may be imposed by the Department of Conservation. Any person, firm or corporation of this state who shall lawfully take any shrimp from any of the waters of the state, or lawfully acquire the same, shall have a qualified interest or property in the shrimp so taken or acquired in the shells, which qualified interest may be sold or transferred to any other person, firm or corporation within the limits of the state;