The commission was charged by Texas state law with the administration of oil and gas regulations, including production quotas for each field and well.

Underground water and gas pressure needed to be monitored in order to maintain steady oil production and prevent waste.

The central issue to the plaintiff's claim was the "reasonableness" of the commission's order according to state law, which Black agreed was a different standard than constitutional due process.

Any such holding would result in a drastic inroad on diversity jurisdiction-a limitation which I agree might be desirable but which Congress, not this Court, should make.

He distinguished Railroad Commission v. Pullman Co. on the grounds that in that case, the state law question could have displaced the federal issue entirely, and that the Texas Supreme Court had already defined the terms of the statute and the scope of judicial review thereunder.