ICC – Requiescat in Pacem

The Interstate Commerce Commission was created in 1887 when Grover Cleveland was president.  Over the years, Congress greatly expanded the ICC's authority.  At one time, the ICC had thousands of employees.  In 1995, President Clinton signed legislation abolishing the ICC and it has disappeared from the regulatory scene.  Strangely, however, the ICC lives on in the Corporate Securities Law of 1968.  Corporations Code Section 25100(i) exempts any security issued or guaranteed by any railroad, other common carrier, public utility, or public utility holding company that is subject to various other regulatory schemes.  The ICC remains one of the listed regulators in the statute.  While keeping this outdated reference does no real harm, it should be excised from the statute if, for no other reason, saving lawyers the trouble of looking up the status of a long dead federal agency.