Gibbons v. Ogden · ¶82

If we refer to the constitution, the inference to be drawn from it. is rather against the distinction. The section which restrains Congress from prohibiting the migration or importation of such persons as any of the States may think proper to ad-tnit, until the year: 1808, has always been considered as an exception from the power to regulate commerce, and certainly seems to class migration.with importation. Migration applies as appropriately to voluntary, as importation does to involuntary, arrivals; and, so far as an exception from a power proves its existence, this section proves that the power to regulate commerce applies equally to the regulation of vessels employed in transporting men, who pass from place to place voluntarily, and to those who pass involuntarily.

U. S. Reports, bound volume
U. S. Reports, volume 22, at 1 (Library of Congress) · transcription: Caselaw Access Project
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