In the 1931 case of Continental Tie & Lumber Co. v. United States, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government, upholding a decision by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). The ICC had previously ordered Continental Tie & Lumber Company to cease and desist from transporting its own lumber products across state lines without paying freight charges or obtaining necessary permissions for private carriage operations. The company argued that it was not subject to these regulations as it was merely shipping its own goods using its own equipment and thus should be considered a private carrier rather than a common carrier under interstate commerce laws. However, both lower courts and ultimately the Supreme Court disagreed with this interpretation, asserting that any entity engaging in interstate transportation fell within regulatory purview of ICC regardless of what they were transporting or whether they owned their transport equipment.

In the dissenting opinion for Continental Tie & Lumber Co. v. United States, it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold a federal law prohibiting corporations from transporting goods produced by their own subsidiaries on railroads they also owned was an overreach of government power and violated principles of economic liberty. The dissenters believed that this ruling interfered with private business operations without sufficient justification or public benefit, arguing that there were no clear grounds for believing such practices inherently harmful or unfair in nature. They contended that the law did not serve any legitimate regulatory purpose but instead imposed arbitrary restrictions on corporate activities based purely on ownership structure rather than actual conduct or impact on competition.