United States v. E. C. Knight

Appellant

United States

Appellees

E. C. Knight Company, American Sugar Refining Company, Franklin Sugar Company, Spreckels Sugar Refining Company, Delaware Sugar House

Appellant's Claim

That lower courts erred in finding that the named sugar refining companies had not violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890.

Chief Lawyers for Appellant

Lawrence Maxwell Jr., U.S. Solicitor General; Richard Olney, U.S. Attorney General

Chief Lawyers for Appellees

John E. Parsons, John G. Johnson

Justices for the Court

Henry Billings Brown, David Josiah Brewer, Stephen Johnson Field, Melville Weston Fuller (writing for the Court), Horace Gray, George Shiras, Jr., Edward Douglass White

Justices Dissenting

John Marshall Harlan I (Howell Edmunds did not participate)

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

21 January 1895

Decision

The Court upheld the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, but found that it did not apply to manufacturing.

Significance

The decision severely weakened the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, the federal government's first attempt to limit the power of industrial monopolies.

Related Cases

• Addyston Pipe & Steel Co. v. United States, 175 U.S. 211 (1899).
• Northern Securities Co. v. United States, 193 U.S. 197 (1904).

Sources

West's Encyclopedia of American Law Minneapolis, Minnesota: West Publishing, 1998.

Sources

Knappman, Edward W., ed. Great American Trials. Detroit, MI: Visible Ink Press, 1994.