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Gibbons v. Ogden
This case, the first of many in which the Supreme Court interprets the Commerce Clause, arose when Gibbons, in possession of a federal license to operate passenger ships, challenged the steamboat monopoly granted by New York to Robert Fulton, who in turn passed his right to Ogden. The Court considers (and Justice Johnson, whose opinion is omitted, would have relied on) the argument that only Congress can make laws concerning navigation, but decides in the end that the federal Licensing Act simply supersedes a contrary state law.
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