The Sherman Act Of 1890

On April 19, 1866, the US Congress passed the first ever Civil Rights Act. It gave black Americans the right to own their own property, to have legal protection in business, and to take people to court. The act was also the first time that black Americans were called citizens of the United States. This meant that black Americans would have the same rights and privileges as all other US citizens. Another Civil Rights Act was passed in 1875. This act made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race in public places, such as restaurants. In 1883, the Supreme Court ruled that the 1875 act was unconstitutional on the basis that businesses had the right to choose which customers they served and which they could ignore. This allowed businesses that provided public facilities to choose to exclude black people. On June 1, 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed. It became the most important civil rights organization fighting for the rights of black people in the United States. It is still active today and has a membership of about half a million. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court passed a judgment that changed the course of civil rights in the United States. In the case of Brown v. the Board of Education, the judges on the Supreme Court declared that racial segregation in education was unconstitutional and therefore against the law. This decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896. Shortly after noon on Monday May 17,

The Federalists called this act as unconstitutional on the basis that the Congress may “regulate trade with foreign nations, and among the several states…” To regulate trade implies that some trade is allowed. Congress completely banned trade with foreign nations so the Embargo Act of 1807 was clearly unconstitutional. Daniel Webster, a Federalist, said in a speech,

The Morrill Act of 1862 and 1890 was the beginning of American Public Education. This trend was designed to provide equal opportunity to the different socioeconomic groups.

1914: Clayton passes the Federal Trade Commission Act to invest trust activity and halt unfair behavior (false ads, adulteration.mislabeling, and bribes).

Next, the Court examined the clause's phrase "commerce among the several States," concluding that the word "among" means "intermingled with." Accordingly, Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce does not "stop at the external boundary line of each State, but may be introduced into the interior." In other words, Congress may pass any law that regulates commerce, so long as that commerce is not wholly confined within a single state, and its power to regulate such commerce is plenary. Under this interpretation of the Commerce Clause, Congress' clearly had the authority to regulate the commercial steamboat route between New York and New Jersey. It was assumed that the licensing act of 1793 did this and that the New York law in question

The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 is federal law in the United States. It was designed to regulate the railroad industry especially its monopolistic practices. A number of states in US such as Ohio had unsuccessfully attempted to regulate railroads before 1887. Ohio had created a state commission to report on railroad and telegraph rates in 1867 but the commission did not have the authority to change rates or to order the railroad companies to change their policies. Due to failure of states to regulate railroads, the Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887. The Act required that railroads charge fair rates to their customers and make those rate public.

There are different types of businesses, for example, some use monopolies, trust and pools, while other eliminate competition for higher prices. As stated in “Progressive reformers regarded regulation as a cure for all sorts of socioeconomic and political problems” , “The Sherman Act of 1890 attempted to outlaw the restriction of competition by large companies that co-operated with rivals to fix outputs, prices, and market shares, initially through pools and later through trusts” , meaning, competition is the

"Bigness not badness was the sin" (Miller). The biggest step that Roosevelt did using the Sherman Act was stopping the Northern Securities Company from having a monopoly on the railroad industry in the North. The Great Northern railroad company wanted to merge with the Northern Pacific railroad company. Even though this was a part of the railroad industry Roosevelt did not like where the merge might lead in the future, because he wanted to insure that other corporations could compete. He also broke up the Standard Oil Trust and the Tobacco Trust. He felt that they were getting too large and smaller companies had no where to go. In seven and a half years Theodore Roosevelt had 44 prosecutions using the Sherman Act (Howland).

The government also enacted the Hepburn Act, which made shipping internationally difficult on the railroad. Despite the fact that government grants led to incompetent railroads, the Interstate Commerce Commission and Hepburn Act were put into place, which made it so Hill “could not offer rate discounts on exports traveling on the Great Northern en route to the Orient” which was helping improve the economy with increased trade. Hill and other market entrepreneurs were not corrupt or unfair when choosing to not have subsides, but rather the political entrepreneurs were corrupt and insolvent. Also, Folsom argues that John D. Rockefeller was negatively impacted by government intervention. The Sherman Act was intended “to prevent monopolies and those companies ‘in restraint of trade’. Yet Standard Oil had no monopoly and certainly was not restraining trade” . Rockefeller’s goal was not to create a monopoly but in order to keep his business succeeding he needed directors in each state. By enacting the Sherman Act, Rockefeller’s company struggled, due to competition rising. These laws essentially stopped the growth of successful businesses, such as Hill and Rockefeller, who became so successful due to no government intervention.

Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act prohibits the efforts of multiple firms to restrain trade by controlling prices and supply in a market (46 Case W. Res. 1033). In terms of a professional sports league, a

Furthermore, in Standard Oil Co., the Supreme Court stated that “The term "monopoly,"… as used in the Sherman Act was intended to cover such monopolies or attempts to monopolize as were known to exist in this country; those which were defined as illegal at common law by the States, when applied to intrastate commerce.” The Supreme Court went on to further state that “the principles of the common law applied to interstate as well as to intrastate commerce.”

Throughout history, immigration has remained a complex and influential piece of presidential policy—from the Age of Mass Migration, which led to the Immigration Act of 1924, to present day policy, which may result in the construction of a border wall. The debate on immigration remains contentious, inspiring emotional and empirical arguments by politicians and the public alike. Many of these aspects are discussed and defined within Abramitzky, Boustan, and Eriksson’s paper “A Nation of Immigrants: Assimilation and Economic Outcomes in the Age of Mass Migration” and Peri’s paper “Immigrants, Productivity, and Labor Markets,” which analyze American immigration, both past and present. From these papers, it is evident that adopting a nativist

The first neutrality act made it unlawful for the U.S. to ship or sell arms to

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 was passed to prohibit trusts, this was the first law passed by U.S. Congress to enforce this. This act was named after Senator John Sherman. Before this act was put into place, many other states had enforced laws very similar to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. These laws were not perfect though, the large corporations had the majority of the economic power. Congress was not pleased with this, thus making the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. This act allowed Congress to regulate interstate commerce, outlawing monopolistic practices. If a person were to violate this act, he or she could be imprisoned for a year and fined five-thousand dollars. This law was successfully used to help Theodore Roosevelt during his campaign, “trust-busting”. Also, President Taft used the law to back himself up against the Standard Oil Trust and American Tobacco Company. The Standard Oil trust was when a board of nine trustees was set up to make all of the company decisions , allowing the company to run as a monopoly. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act allowed both presidents to dissolve the trusts that were creating problems. On the other hand, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act had many holes, it did not have exact wording, therefore allowing companies to still control the majority of the producing and still get away with it. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act had substantial success, but was put to rest and replaced with the Clayton Anti-Trust

These acts were a violation of the Securities Act of 1933. The objectives of the Securities Act of 1933 are that investors obtain accurate reports of a company's commerce and to prevent misleading securities sales (USSEC, 2007). Although, the USSEC cannot guarantee the information provided by each company; the Securities Act of 1934 grants authority to the USSEC with disciplinary authorization (USSEC, 2007).