Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

New York granted Robert Livingston and Robert Fulton an exclusive right to operate steamboats in state waters, and Aaron Ogden, a former New Jersey governor, held a license from them to run boats between New York and New Jersey. His former partner Thomas Gibbons ran competing steamboats under a federal coasting license issued under a 1793 act of Congress. New York courts barred Gibbons from operating, and he appealed to the Supreme Court, represented by Daniel Webster.

On March 2, 1824, the Court ruled unanimously for Gibbons in an opinion by Chief Justice John Marshall. Marshall held that commerce is more than buying and selling goods: it is intercourse among the states, including navigation, and Congress's power to regulate commerce among the several states reaches commerce that concerns more states than one, even within a state's borders. Because the New York monopoly conflicted with the federal license, it was void under the Supremacy Clause. Justice William Johnson, concurring, would have held the commerce power exclusive.

The decision opened the nation's waterways to competition, and steamboat traffic and fares quickly reflected it, helping to build a national market. It became the starting point for the Court's commerce clause cases, cited in New Deal decisions expanding federal power and in later cases, such as United States v. Lopez in 1995, that sought to define its limits. Supporters of broad national power invoke Marshall's expansive definition, while advocates of limited federal power note his statement that purely internal commerce of a state remains reserved to it.