U.S. Supreme Court decision (1824) that established that states could not, by legislative enactment, interfere with the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce .
The state of New York had authorized a monopoly on steamboat operation in its waters, an action upheld by a state chancery court, but the Supreme Court ruled that competing steamboat operators were protected by the terms of a federal license to engage in trade along a coast. The decision, an important development in the interpretation of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution , freed all navigation from monopoly control.