In the 1906 case of Hunt v. New York Cotton Exchange, the United States Supreme Court examined whether a cotton exchange's rules that restricted trading to members and their approved agents violated federal antitrust laws. The plaintiff, a non-member broker who was denied access to trade on the exchange, argued that these restrictions constituted an illegal restraint of trade under the Sherman Antitrust Act. However, in its decision for this case, the court ruled against him stating that not every restriction on commerce is unlawful and only unreasonable restraints are prohibited by law. The court found no evidence suggesting any intent or effect to monopolize or restrain interstate commerce unlawfully through these membership rules; instead they were viewed as legitimate business practices designed to maintain order and integrity within the market place. Therefore it held upholding such regulations did not violate antitrust laws.

In the dissenting opinion for Hunt v. New York Cotton Exchange, Justice Harlan argued that the majority's decision was a misinterpretation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. He believed that it should be applied to all contracts and combinations which directly or indirectly affect commerce among states, not just those with an explicit intent to restrain trade. In his view, any agreement between parties in different states which restricts free competition is inherently detrimental to interstate commerce and thus falls under federal jurisdiction. Furthermore, he contended that even if such agreements were made for legitimate business purposes they could still have harmful effects on trade and therefore should be subject to regulation under antitrust laws. The justice also disagreed with the majority’s assertion that cotton futures trading did not constitute interstate commerce because it involved only contracts for sale rather than actual goods being transported across state lines; he maintained this distinction was irrelevant as both types of transactions had significant impacts on commercial activity.