Aaron Ogden's New Jersey Monopoly

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New York required that steamships operating in its water had a license to do so, and so a monopoly on issuing such licenses was awarded to Robert Livingston and Robert Fulton in response to their rewarding innovations in steam engines. Aaron Ogden (P), the governor of New Jersey, persuaded the New Jersey legislator to grant him a similar “monopoly”. His aim was to cut into Livingston’s steamer business between New York City and New Jersey. Ogden’s New Jersey monopoly was then repealed so, he crossed the border to New York City where he asked the heirs of deceased Fulton and Livingston to grant him a license to run ships between New York and New Jersey. Thomas Gibbons (D), Ogden’s former business partner, started up a ferry business on an unscheduled route between Elizabethtown, New Jersey and New York City. Ogden sought an injunction, in the New York courts, against Gibbons, and won the basis that he had a New York state license for steam boating. Gibbons appealed to the Supreme Court on the fact that he had a government granted steamboat license. …show more content…

Did the Constitution implicitly prohibit or exclude states from passing laws that have to do with commerce? Is the ability to regulate interstate commerce a concurrent power of the state, or only reserved to the federal

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