Note 219 — AMENDMENT 14

In Federal Power Commission v. Nat. Gas Pipeline Co., 315 U.S. 575, 599, Justices Black, Douglas, and Murphy, in a concurring opinion, proposed to travel the road all the way back to Munn v. Illinois, and deprive courts of the power to void rates simply because they deem the latter to be unreasonable. In a concurring opinion, written earlier in 1939 in Driscoll v. Edison Co., 307 U.S. 104, 122, Justice Frankfurter temporarily adopted a similar position; for therein he declared that "the only relevant function of law * * * [in rate controversies] is to secure observance of those procedural safeguards in the exercise of legislative powers, which are the historic foundations of due process." However, in his dissent in the Hope Gas Case (320 U.S. 591, 625), he disassociated himself from this proposal, and asserted that "it was decided [more than fifty years ago] that the final say under the Constitution lies with the judiciary."