Category: Commerce Clause as a Restraint on State Powers
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State Proprietary Activity Exception
The State Proprietary Activity (Market Participant) ExceptionIn a case of first impression, the Court held that a Maryland bounty scheme by which the state paid scrap processors for each "hulk" automobile destroyed is "the kind of action with which the Commerce Clause is not concerned…
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State Regulation
Congressional Regulation: State Regulation in the Old WayMuch more diverse were the cases dealing with regulation by the state and local governments. Taxation was one thing, the myriad approaches and purposes of regulations another. Generally speaking, if the state action was perceived by the Court …
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State Taxation
Congressional Regulation: State Taxation in the Old WayThe leading case dealing with the relation of the states' taxing power to interstate commerce&emdash;the case in which the Court first struck down a state tax as violating the Commerce Clause&emdash; was the State Freight Tax Case.<a name=t1…
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State Taxation History
State Taxation and Regulation: The Old LawIn 1959, the Supreme Court acknowledged that, with respect to the taxing power of the states in light of the negative (or "dormant") commerce clause, "some three hundred full-dress opinions" as of that year had not resulted in "consi…
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Foreign Commerce
Foreign Commerce and State PowersState taxation and regulation of commerce from abroad are also subject to negative commerce clause constraints. In the seminal case of Brown v. Maryland,1 in the course of striking down a state statute requiring "…
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Commerce Clause and State Powers
The Commerce Clause as a Restraint on State Powers: Doctrinal BackgroundThe grant of power to Congress over commerce, unlike that of power to levy customs duties, the power to raise armies, and some others, is unaccompanied by correlative restrictions on state power.<a name=t1 href=#f1 target="…
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Congressional Authorization Action
Congressional Authorization of Otherwise Impermissible State ActionThe Supreme Court has heeded the lesson that was administered to it by the Act of Congress of August 31, 1852,1 which pronounced the Wheeling Bridge "a lawful structure," th…