Wabash Case definition of Wabash Case in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Wabash Case, popular name for Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company v. Illinois, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1886. The decision narrowed earlier ones (see Munn v. Illinois Munn v. Illinois, case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1876. Munn, a partner in a Chicago warehouse firm, had been found guilty by an Illinois court of violating the state laws providing for the fixing of maximum charges for storage of grain (see Granger
..... Click the link for more information. ) favorable to state regulation of those phases of interstate commerce upon which Congress itself had not acted. The court declared invalid an Illinois law prohibiting long- and short-haul clauses in transportation contracts as an infringement on the exclusive powers of Congress granted by the commerce clause of the Constitution. The result of the case was denial of state power to regulate interstate rates for railroads, and the decision led to creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission.