Granger cases were five cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1877. The Supreme Court ruled that within their own boundaries states could regulate property affecting the public interest. These rulings of the court led to state regulation of many industries.
After the Civil War, Midwestern farmers faced rising transportation and storage costs and declining profits. The farmers formed clubs called Granges, through which they appealed to the states to regulate the railroads and storehouses. Some states with large farm populations, such as Illinois and Wisconsin, passed acts setting maximum transportation and grain storage rates.
Owners of railroads and grain elevators denounced the laws as interference with interstate commerce (trade between states), and violation of property rights. In Munn v. Illinois, the most important Granger case, the Supreme Court upheld the Illinois law. The court ruled that property which affected the community at large “must submit to be controlled by the public for the common good.”
