United States V. American Trucking Associations

United States v. American Trucking Associations, 310 U.S. 534 (1940), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case which marked a shift from evaluating the "plain meaning" of statutes to a judicial effort to determine "legislative intent."

American Trucking Associations had sought to compel the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to regulate all employees of trucking industries, rather than simply those whose job has an impact on safety. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) included an exemption to employees regulated by the ICC under the Motor Carrier Act of 1935. By compelling the ICC to recognize all trucking employees as within its power to regulate, such employees would be exempt from the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the FLSA.

The court decided that ICC's interpretation of the statute, which limited its power only to those employees who have an impact on safety, was correct.

Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, american and/or associations:

    ... it is probable that in a fit of generosity the men of the United States would have enfranchised its women en masse; and the government now staggering under the ballots of ignorant, irresponsible men, must have gone down under the additional burden of the votes which would have been thrown upon it, by millions of ignorant, irresponsible women.
    Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)

    The popular colleges of the United States are turning out more educated people with less originality and fewer geniuses than any other country.
    Caroline Nichols Churchill (1833–?)

    The people of the United States have been fortunate in many things. One of the things in which we have been most fortunate has been that so far, due perhaps to certain basic virtues in our traditional ways of doing things, we have managed to keep the crisis of western civilization, which has devastated the rest of the world and in which we are as much involved as anybody, more or less at arm’s length.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    Let’s face it. Let’s talk sense to the American people. Let’s tell them the truth, that there are no gains without pains, that we are now on the eve of great decisions, not easy decisions.
    Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965)

    Hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics or religion which he got otherwise than through his associations and sympathies. Broadly speaking, there are none but corn-pone opinions. And broadly speaking, Corn-Pone stands for Self- Approval. Self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is Conformity.
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)