ADMINISTRATIVE LAW - REQUIREMENTS OF "FULL HEARING"

The late Professor Ernst Freund once wrote, "A judicial hearing involves two things: that the party be heard as to his own case and that he hear the case against him." Were the words "quasi-judicial" to be substituted for the word "judicial" in Dr. Freund's definition, it would be difficult more concisely to paraphrase the two decisions of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Morgan v. United States. Fifty suits, later consolidated for purposes of trial, were started by certain market agencies of the Kansas City Stockyards to enjoin the enforcement of an order of the United States Secretary of Agriculture fixing maximum commission rates to be charged by those agencies for buying and selling livestock at the Kansas City Stockyards. The secretary acted pursuant to the Packers and Stockyards Act. The suits were brought, and twice appealed to the Supreme Court, on the ground that the market agencies had been denied the full hearing provided for by the act.