Gibbons v. Ogden

U.S. Case Law

Legal Definition of Gibbons v. Ogden

22 U.S. 1 (1824), established that states cannot, by legislative enactment, interfere with the power of Congress to regulate commerce. The state of New York had authorized a monopoly on steamboat operation in state waters, and this action was upheld by a state chancery court. The Supreme Court, however, ruled that competing steamboat operators were protected by terms of a federal license to engage in trade along a coast. The decision was an important development in the interpretation of the commerce clause of the Constitution, and it freed all navigation of monopoly control.