This case involved the most famous opinion delivered by Chief Justice Morrison Remick Waite (1816-1888). In it, he upheld legislation proposed by the Grangers to regulate railroad and grain elevator rates, declaring that the general welfare requires that business interests be reined in by governmental authority.
In Munn v. Illinois, the Supreme Court decided that the Fourteenth Amendment did not prevent the State of Illinois from regulating charges for use of a business's grain elevators, ignoring the question of whether Munn & Scott was a person.
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