CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-PUBLIC UTILITY HOLDING COMPANY ACT--VALIDITY OF HOLDING COMPANY "DEATH SENTENCE" CLAUSE

Petitioner was the topmost holding company in a public utility holding company system which included eighty subsidiaries and served three million customers in seventeen states. By provision of section 11 (b) (1) of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, the Securities and Exchange Commission was empowered to limit the operations of a holding company registered with it under the act to "a single integrated public utility system." Acting under this authority, the commission ordered petitioner, a registered company, to divest itself of all its subsidiary holdings excepting certain interests regarded by the commission as a single integrated system within the. meaning of the act. In seeking to have the order of the commission set aside, petitioner contended that the measures provided by section 11 (b) (1) were without the power of Congress under the commerce clause of the Constitution and violated due process secured by the Fifth Amendment. Held, the challenged measures are constitutional.

The North American Company v. Securities and Exchange Commission, (U.S. 1946) 8 66 S. Ct. 785.