The Dormant Commerce Clause and State Regulation: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
25 flashcard terms for Constitutional Law Topic 5, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 15-question quiz — free, no account needed.
The negative implication of the commerce grant, restraining states from burdening or discriminating against interstate commerce even when Congress has not legislated on the subject.
Economic protectionism
State or local action designed to shield in-state economic interests from out-of-state competition. It is the core evil the dormant commerce doctrine targets.
Facial discrimination against commerce
A law that on its face treats in-state and out-of-state goods, actors, or transactions differently. Such laws face a virtually per se rule of invalidity.
Virtually per se invalidity
The near-fatal standard for discriminatory state laws, upheld only if the state proves a legitimate nonprotectionist purpose and that no reasonable nondiscriminatory alternative exists.
Pike balancing
The test for evenhanded state laws with only incidental effects on commerce: they stand unless the burden on interstate commerce is clearly excessive in relation to the local benefits.
Philadelphia v. New Jersey
Struck a ban on importing out-of-state waste, holding that a state may not isolate itself from a problem common to many states by erecting a barrier against articles of commerce.
C and A Carbone v. Town of Clarkstown
Invalidated a flow control ordinance requiring all local waste to pass through one private transfer station, treating the favoring of a single local processor as discrimination.
United Haulers Association v. Oneida-Herkimer
Distinguished Carbone and upheld flow control directing waste to a publicly owned facility, reasoning that laws favoring government rather than private business are not ordinary protectionism.
Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission
Struck a North Carolina labeling rule that barred display of Washington's superior state grades, since the practical effect stripped out-of-state growers of a competitive advantage.
Discriminatory effect
A law neutral on its face but operating to burden out-of-state interests. Courts examine practical operation, and a demonstrated protectionist effect triggers the strict standard.
Extraterritoriality principle
The limit on a state's power to project its regulation onto commerce occurring wholly outside its borders, such as by directly controlling out-of-state prices.
Inconsistent regulation problem
The concern that conflicting state rules on interstate instrumentalities, such as truck mudflaps or train lengths, would burden national transportation and warrant invalidation.
Kassel v. Consolidated Freightways
Struck an Iowa restriction on twin trailers because the safety justification was weak while the burden of rerouting trucks around the state was substantial.
South-Central Timber Development v. Wunnicke
Held that a state selling timber could not attach a downstream condition requiring in-state processing, because market participation does not license regulation of a separate market.
Market participant exception
When a state buys, sells, hires, or subsidizes as a participant in the market rather than as a regulator, it may prefer its own residents without violating the dormant commerce clause.
Reeves v. Stake
Upheld a state-owned cement plant's preference for in-state buyers during a shortage, a leading application of the market participant exception.
Congressional authorization of state burdens
Because the doctrine merely implements a dormant federal power, Congress may consent to state laws that would otherwise be invalid, as it has done for insurance regulation.
Granholm v. Heald
Struck state schemes permitting direct shipment by in-state wineries but not out-of-state wineries, holding that the Twenty-first Amendment does not authorize discrimination against interstate commerce.
Twenty-first Amendment and alcohol regulation
States retain broad authority over the sale and distribution of alcohol within their borders, but that authority does not license protectionist discrimination against out-of-state sellers.
Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers v. Thomas
Invalidated a durational residency requirement for liquor retail licenses, finding it protectionist rather than a genuine public health measure.
West Lynn Creamery v. Healy
Struck a nondiscriminatory milk tax paired with a subsidy paid only to in-state farmers, because the combined scheme neutralized the competitive advantage of out-of-state producers.
Comptroller of the Treasury v. Wynne
Applied the internal consistency test to strike a state income tax scheme that would systematically double tax income earned across state lines.
Internal consistency test
A tax fails if hypothetically applying the same scheme in every state would place interstate commerce at a disadvantage compared with purely intrastate activity.
Complete Auto Transit v. Brady
Set the four-part standard for state taxation of interstate commerce: substantial nexus, fair apportionment, no discrimination, and fair relation to services provided.
South Dakota v. Wayfair
Overruled the physical presence rule for sales tax collection, holding that substantial nexus can be established by significant economic and virtual contacts with the taxing state.