FORT GRATIOT SANITARY LANDFILL, INC. v. MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES ET AL.
No. 91-636
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 30, 1992—Decided June 1, 1992
504 U.S. 353
Harold B. Finn III argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Donna Nelson Heller and David I. Albin.
Thomas L. Casey, Assistant Solicitor General of Michigan, argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief for the state respondents were Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Gay Secor Hardy, Solicitor General, and Thomas J. Emery and James E. Riley, Assistant Attorneys General. Lawrence R. Ternan, Margaret Battle Kiernan, and Robert J. Nickerson filed a brief for the county respondents.*
*Andrew J. Pincus, Evan M. Tager, and Bruce J. Parker filed a brief for the National Solid Wastes Management Association as amicus curiae urging reversal.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the State of Alabama et al. by Chris Gorman, Attorney General of Kentucky, and
A brief of amici curiae was filed for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania et al. by Ernest D. Preate, Jr., Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Calvin R. Koons, Senior Deputy Attorney General, John G. Knorr III, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Gail B. Phelps, and David H. Wersan, and by the Attorneys General for their respective States as follows: Michael J. Bowers of Georgia, Larry EchoHawk of Idaho, Roland W. Burris of Illinois, Marc Racicot of Montana, Don Stenberg of Nebraska, Frankie Sue Del Papa of Nevada, Nicholas Spaeth of North Dakota, Tom Udall of New Mexico, Lee Fisher of Ohio, T. Travis Medlock of South Carolina, Mark Barnett of South Dakota, Charles W. Burson of Tennessee, Mario J. Palumbo of West Virginia, and Joseph B. Meyer of Wyoming.
JUSTICE STEVENS delivered the opinion of the Court.
In Philadelphia v. New Jersey, 437 U. S. 617, 618 (1978), we held that a New Jersey law prohibiting the importation of most “solid or liquid waste which originated or was collected outside the territorial limits of the State” violated the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. In this case petitioner challenges a Michigan law that prohibits private landfill operators from accepting solid waste that originates outside the county in which their facilities are located. Adhering to our holding in the New Jersey case, we conclude that this Michigan statute is also unconstitutional.
I
In 1978, Michigan enacted its Solid Waste Management Act1 (SWMA). That Act required every Michigan county to estimate the amount of solid waste that would be generated in the county in the next 20 years and to adopt a plan providing for its disposal at facilities that comply with state health standards.
On December 28, 1988, the Michigan Legislature amended the SWMA by adopting two provisions concerning the “acceptance of waste or ash generated outside the county of disposal area.” See
“A person shall not accept for disposаl solid waste . . . that is not generated in the county in which the disposal area is located unless the acceptance of solid waste . . . that is not generated in the county is explicitly authorized in the approved county solid waste management plan.”
§ 299.413a .“In order for a disposal area to serve the disposal needs of another county, state, or country, the service . . . must be explicitly authorized in the approved solid waste management plan of the receiving county.”
§ 299.430(2) .
In February 1989, petitioner submitted an application to the St. Clair County Solid Waste Planning Committee for authority to accept up to 1,750 tons per day of out-of-state waste at its landfill. See Bill Kettlewell Excavating, Inc. v. Michigan Dеpt. of Natural Resources, 732 F. Supp. 761, 762 (ED Mich. 1990). In that application petitioner promised to reserve sufficient capacity to dispose of all solid waste generated in the county in the next 20 years. The planning committee denied the application. Ibid. In view of the fact that the county‘s management plan does not authorize the acceptance of any out-of-county waste, the Waste Import Restrictions in the 1988 statute effectively prevent petitioner from receiving any solid waste that does not originate in St. Clair County.
Petitioner therefore commenced this action seeking a judgment declaring the Waste Import Restrictions unconstitutional and enjoining their enforcement. Petitioner cоntended that requiring a private landfill operator to limit its business to the acceptance of local waste constituted impermissible discrimination against interstate commerce. The District Court denied petitioner‘s motion for summary judgment, however, id., at 766, and subsequently dismissed the complaint, App. 4. The court first concluded that the statute
The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit agreed with the District Court‘s analysis. Although it recognized that the statute “places in-county and out-of-county waste in separate categories,” the Court of Appeals found no discrimination against interstate commerce because the statute “does not treat out-of-county waste from Michigan any differently than waste from other states.” 931 F. 2d, at 417. It also agreed that there was no actual discrimination because petitioner had not alleged that all counties in Michigan ban out-of-state waste. Id., at 418. Accordingly, it affirmed the judgment of the District Court. Ibid. We granted certiorari, 502 U. S. 1024 (1992), because of concern that the decision below was inconsistent with Philadelphia v. New Jersey and now reverse.
II
Before discussing the rather narrow issue that is contested, it is appropriate to identify certain matters that are not in dispute. Michigan‘s comprehensive program of regulating the collection, transportation, and disposal of solid waste, as it was enacted in 1978 and administered prior to the 1988 Waste Import Restrictions, is not challenged. No issue relating to hazardous waste is presented, and there is no claim that petitioner‘s operation violated any health, safety, or sanitation requirement. Nor does the case raise аny question concerning policies that municipalities or other governmental agencies may pursue in the management of
On the other hand, Philadelphia v. New Jersey provides the framework for our analysis of this case. Solid waste, even if it has no value, is an article of commerce.3 437 U. S., at 622-623. Whether the business arrangements between out-of-state generators of waste and the Michigan operator of a waste disposal site are viewed as “sales” of garbage or “purchases” of transportation and disposal services, the commercial transactions unquestionably have an interstate character. The Commerce Clause thus imposes some constraints on Michigan‘s ability to regulate these transactions.
As we have long recognized, the “negative” or “dormant” aspect of the Commerce Clause prohibits States from “advanc[ing] their own commercial interests by curtailing the movement of articles of commerce, either into or out of the state.” H. P. Hood & Sons, Inc. v. Du Mond, 336 U. S. 525, 535 (1949). A state statute that clearly discriminates against interstate commerce is therefore unconstitutional “unless the discrimination is demonstrably justified by a valid factor unrelated to economic protectionism.” New Energy Co. of Ind. v. Limbach, 486 U. S. 269, 274 (1988).
“[T]he evil of protectionism can reside in legislative means as well as legislative ends. Thus, it does not matter whether the ultimate aim of ch. 363 is to reduce the waste disposal costs of New Jersey residents or to save remaining open lands from pollution, for we assume New Jersey has every right to protect its residents’ pocketbooks as well as their environment. And it may be assumed as well that New Jersey may pursue those ends by slowing the flow of all waste into the State‘s remaining landfills, even though interstate commerce may incidentally be affected. But whatever New Jersey‘s ultimate purpose, it may not be accompanied by discriminating against articles of commerce coming from outside the State unless there is some reason, apart from thеir origin, to treat them differently. Both on its face and in its plain effect, ch. 363 violates this principle of nondiscrimination.
“The Court has consistently found parochial legislation of this kind to be constitutionally invalid, whether the ultimate aim of the legislation was to assure a steady supply of milk by erecting barriers to allegedly ruinous outside competition, Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig, Inc., 294 U. S., at 522-524; or to create jobs by keeping industry within the State, Foster-Fountain Packing Co. v. Haydel, 278 U. S. 1, 10; Johnson v. Haydel, 278 U. S. 16; Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U. S., at 403-404; or to preserve the State‘s financial resources from depletion by fencing out indigent immigrants, Edwards v. California, 314 U. S. 160, 173-174. In each of these cases, a presumably legitimate goal was sought to be achieved by the illegitimate means of isolating the State from the national economy.” Philadelphia v. New Jersey, 437 U. S., at 626-627.
III
Respondents Michigan and St. Clair County argue, however, that the Waste Import Restrictions—unlike the New Jersey prohibitiоn on the importation of solid waste—do not discriminate against interstate commerce on their face or in effect because they treat waste from other Michigan counties no differently than waste from other States. Instead, respondents maintain, the statute regulates evenhandedly to effectuate local interests and should be upheld because the burden on interstate commerce is not clearly excessive in relation to the local benefits. Cf. Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U. S. 137, 142 (1970). We disagree, for our prior cases teach that a State (or one of its political subdivisions) may not avoid the strictures of the Commerce Clause by curtailing the movement of articles of commerce through subdivisions of the State, rather than through the State itself.
In Brimmer v. Rebman, 138 U. S. 78 (1891), we reviewed the constitutionality of a Virginia statute that imposed special inspection fees on meat from animals that had been slaughtered more than 100 miles from the place of sale. We concluded that the statute violated the Commerce Clause even though it burdened Virginia producers as well as the Illinois litigant before the Court. We explained:
“[T]his statute [cannot] be brought into harmony with the Constitution by the circumstance that it purports to apply alike to the citizens of all the States, including Virginia; for, ‘a burden imposed by a State upon interstate commerce is not to be sustained simply because the statute imposing it applies alike to the people оf all the States, including the people of the State enacting such statute.’ Minnesota v. Barber, [136 U. S. 313 (1890)]; Robbins v. Shelby Taxing District, 120 U. S. 489, 497. If the object of Virginia had been to obstruct the bringing into that State, for use as human food, of all beef, veal and mutton, however wholesome, from animals slaughtered in distant States, that object will be accomplished if the statute before us be enforced.” Id., at 82-83.
In Dean Milk Co. v. Madison, 340 U. S. 349 (1951), another Illinois litigant challenged a city ordinance that made it unlawful to sell any milk as pasteurized unless it had been processed at a plant “within a radius of five miles from the central square of Madison,” id., at 350. We held the ordinance invalid, explaining:
“[T]his regulation, like the provision invalidated in Baldwin v. Seelig, Inc., [294 U. S. 511 (1935)], in practical effect excludes from distribution in Madison wholesome milk produced and pasteurized in Illinois. ‘The importer . . . may keep his milk or drink it, but sell it he may not.’ Id., at 521. In thus erecting an ecоnomic barrier protecting a major local industry against competition from without the State, Madison plainly discriminates against interstate commerce.” Id., at 354.
The fact that the ordinance also discriminated against all Wisconsin producers whose facilities were more than five miles from the center of the city did not mitigate its burden on interstate commerce. As we noted, it was “immaterial that Wisconsin milk from outside the Madison area is sub-
Nor does the fact that the Michigan statute allows individual counties to accept solid waste from out of state qualify its discriminatory character. In the New Jersey case the statute authorized a state agеncy to promulgate regulations permitting certain categories of waste to enter the State. See 437 U. S., at 618-619. The limited exception covered by those regulations—like the fact that several Michigan counties accept out-of-state waste—merely reduced the scope of the discrimination; for all categories of waste not excepted by the regulations, the discriminatory ban remained in place. Similarly, in this case St. Clair County‘s total ban on out-of-state waste is unaffected by the fact that some other counties have adopted a different policy.4
In short, neither the fact that the Michigan statute purports to regulate intercounty commerce in waste nor the fact thаt some Michigan counties accept out-of-state waste provides an adequate basis for distinguishing this case from Philadelphia v. New Jersey.
IV
Michigan and St. Clair County also argue that this case is different from Philadelphia v. New Jersey because the SWMA constitutes a comprehensive health and safety regulation rather than “economic protectionism” of the State‘s limited landfill capacity. Relying on an excerpt from our opinion in Sporhase v. Nebraska ex rel. Douglas, 458 U. S. 941 (1982), they contend that the differential treatment of
As a preface to that holding, we identified several reasons that, in combination, justified the conclusion that the other conditions were facially valid. Id., at 957. First, we questioned whether the statute actually discriminated against interstate commerce. Although the restrictive conditions in the statute nominally applied only to interstate transfers of ground water, they might have been “no more strict in application than [other state-law] limitations upon intrastate transfers.” Id., at 956. “Obviously, a State that imposes severe withdrawal and use restrictions on its own citizens is not discriminating against interstate commerce when it
We further explained that a confluence of factors could justify a State‘s efforts to conserve and preserve ground water for its own citizens in times of severe shortage.6 Only the first of those reasons—our reference to the well-recognized
Michigan and St. Clair County assert that the Waste Import Restrictions are necessary because they enable individual counties to make adequate plans for the safe disposal of future waste.9 Although accurate forecasts about the vol-
Of course, our conclusion would be different if the imported waste raised health or other concerns nоt presented by Michigan waste. In Maine v. Taylor, 477 U. S. 131 (1986), for example, we upheld the State‘s prohibition against the importation of live baitfish because parasites and other characteristics of nonnative species posed a serious threat to native fish that could not be avoided by available inspection techniques. We concluded:
“The evidence in this case amply supports the District Court‘s findings that Maine‘s ban on the importation of live baitfish serves legitimate local purposes that could not adequately be served by available nondiscriminatory alternatives. This is not a case of arbitrary discrimination against interstate commerce; the record suggests that Maine has legitimate reasons, ‘aрart from their origin, to treat [out-of-state baitfish] differently,’ Philadelphia v. New Jersey, 437 U. S., at 627.” Id., at 151-152.
In this case, in contrast, the lower courts did not find—and respondents have not provided—any legitimate reason for allowing petitioner to accept waste from inside the county but not waste from outside the county.
For the foregoing reasons, the Waste Import Restrictions unambiguously discriminate against interstate commerce and are appropriately characterized as protectionist measures that cannot withstand scrutiny under the Commerce
It is so ordered.
CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST, with whom JUSTICE BLACKMUN joins, dissenting.
When confronted with a dormant Commerce Clause challenge “[t]he crucial inquiry . . . must be directed to determining whethеr [the challenged statute] is basically a protectionist measure, or whether it can fairly be viewed as a law directed to legitimate local concerns, with effects upon interstate commerce that are only incidental.” Philadelphia v. New Jersey, 437 U. S. 617, 624 (1978). Because I think the Michigan statute is at least arguably directed to legitimate local concerns, rather than improper economic protectionism, I would remand this case for further proceedings.
The substantial environmental, esthetic, health, and safety problems flowing from this country‘s waste piles were already apparent at the time we decided Philadelphia. Those problems have only risen in the intervening years. Salisbury, Pollution Liability Insurance Coverage, The Standаrd-Form Pollution Exclusion, and the Insurance Industry: A Case Study in Collective Amnesia, 21 Envtl. L. 357, 369-370 (1991). In part this is due to increased waste volumes, volumes that are expected to continue rising for the foreseeable future. See United States Environmental Protection Agency, Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 1990 Update 10 (municipal solid wastes have increased from 128.1 million tons in 1975 to 179.6 million tons in 1988, expected to rise to 216 million tons by the year 2000); id., at ES-3 (1988 waste was the equivalent of 4.0 pounds per person per day, expected to rise to 4.4 pounds per person by the year 2000). In part it is due to exhaustion of existing capacity. Id., at 55 (landfill disposals increased from 99.7 million tons in 1975 to 130.5 million in 1988); 56 Fed. Reg. 50980 (1991) (45% of solid waste landfills expeсted to reach
The State of Michigan has stepped into this quagmire in order to address waste problems generated by its own populace. It has done so by adopting a comprehensive approach to the disposal of solid wastes generated within its borders. The legislation challenged today is simply one part of a broad package that includes a number of features: a state-mandated statewide effort to control and plan for waste disposal,
*I am baffled by the Court‘s suggestion that this case might be characterized as one in which garbage is being bought and sold. See ante, at 359. There is no suggestion that petitioner is making payment in order to have garbage delivered to it. Petitioner is, instead, being paid to accept the garbage of which others wish to be rid. There can be little doubt that in accepting this garbage, petitioner is also imposing environmental and other risks attendant to the waste‘s delivery and storage.
In adopting this legislation, the Michigan Legislature also appears to have concluded that, like the State, counties should reap as they have sown—hardly a novel proposition. It has required counties within the State to be responsible for the waste created within the county. It has accomplished this by prohibiting waste facilities from accepting waste generated from outside the county, unless special permits are obtained. In the process, of course, this facially neutral restriction (i. e., it applies equally to both interstate and intrastate waste) also works to ban disposal from out-of-state sources unless appropriate permits are procured. But I cannot agree that such a requirement, when imposed as one part of a comprehensive approach to regulating in this difficult field, is the stuff of which economic protectionism is made.
If anything, the challenged regulation seems likely to work to Michigan‘s economic disadvantage. This is because, by limiting potential disposal volumes for any particular site, various fixed costs will have to be recovered across smaller volumes, increasing disposal costs per unit for Michigan consumers. 56 Fed. Reg. 50987 (1991). The regulation also will require some Michigan counties—those that until now have been exporting their waste to other locations in the State—to confront environmental and other risks that they previously have avoided. Commerce Clause concerns are at their nadir when a state Act works in this fashion—raising prices for all the State‘s consumers, and working to the substantial disadvantage of other segments of the State‘s population—because in these circumstances “‘a State‘s own political processes will serve as a check against unduly burdensome regulations.‘” Kassel v. Consolidated Freightways Corp. of Del., 450 U. S. 662, 675 (1981) (quoting Raymond Motor Transportation, Inc. v. Rice, 434 U. S. 429, 444, n. 18 (1978)). In sum, the law simply incorporates the com-
The Court suggests that our decisions in Brimmer v. Rebman, 138 U. S. 78 (1891), and Dean Milk Co. v. Madison, 340 U. S. 349 (1951), foreclose the possibility that a statute attacked on Commerce Clause grounds may be defended by pointing to the statute‘s effects on intrastate commerce. But our decisions in those cases did not rest on such a broad proposition. Instead, as the passages quoted by the Court make clear, in both Brimmer and Dean Milk the Court simply rejected the notion that there could be a noneconomic protectionist reason for the bans at issue, because the objects being banned presented no health or environmental risk. See Brimmer, 138 U. S., at 83 (“[i]f the object of Virginia had been to obstruct the bringing into that State, for uses as human food, of all beef, veal and mutton, however wholesome” (emphasis added)); see also ibid. (comparing the statute to one that bans meat from other States “in whatever form, and although entirely sound and fit for human food” (emphasis added)); Dean Milk, 340 U. S., at 354 (the statute “excludes from distribution in Madison wholesome milk” (emphasis added)). It seems unlikеly that the waste here is “wholesome” or “entirely sound and fit.” It appears, instead, to be potentially dangerous—at least the State has so concluded. Nor does the legislation appear to protect “a major local industry against competition from without the State.” Ibid. Neither Dean Milk nor Brimmer prohibits a State from adopting health and safety regulations that are directed to legitimate local concerns. See Maine v. Taylor, 477 U. S. 131 (1986). I would remand this case to give the State an opportunity to show that this is such a regulation.
The modern landfill is a technically complex engineering exercise that comes replete with liners, leachate collection systems, and highly regulated operating conditions. As a result, siting a modern landfill can now proceed largely independent of the landfill location‘s particular geological characteristiсs. See 56 Fed. Reg. 51009 (1991) (Environmental Protection Agency approved “composite liner system is designed to be protective in all locations, including poor locations“); id., at 51004-51005 (outlining additional technical requirements for only those landfill sites (1) near airports, (2) on floodplains, (3) on wetlands, (4) on fault areas, (5) on seismic impact zones, or (6) on unstable areas). Given this, the laws of economics suggest that landfills will sprout in places
The Court today penalizes the State of Michigan for what to all appearances are its good-faith efforts, in turn encouraging each State to ignore the waste problem in the hope that another will pick up the slack. The Court‘s approach fails to recognize that the latter option is one that is quite real and quite attractive for many States—and becomes even more so when the intermediate oрtion of solving its own problems, but only its own problems, is eliminated.
For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent.
Notes
“Sec. 7. (1) ‘Solid waste’ means garbage, rubbish, ashes, incinerator ash, incinerator residue, street cleanings, municipal and industrial sludges, solid commercial and solid industrial waste, and animal waste other than organic waste generated in the production of livestock and poultry. Solid waste does not include the following:
“(a) Human body waste.
“(b) Organic waste generated in the production of livestock and poultry.
“(c) Liquid waste.
“(d) Ferrous or nonferrous scrap directed to a scrap metal processor or to a reuser of ferrous or nonferrous products.
“(e) Slag or slag products directed to a slag processor or to a reuser of slag or slag products.
“(f) Sludges and ashes managed as recycled or nondetrimental materials appropriate for agricultural or silvicultural use pursuant to a plan approved by the director.
“(g) Materials approved for emergency disposal by the director.
“(h) Source separated materials.
“(i) Site separated materials.
“(j) Fly ash or any other ash produced from the combustion of coal, when used in the following instances . . .
“(k) Other wastes regulated by statute.”
“All objects of interstate trade merit Commerce Clause protection; none is excluded by definition at the outset. In Bowman [v. Chicago & Northwestern R. Co., 125 U. S. 465 (1888)] and similar cases, the Court held simply that because the articles’ worth in interstate commerce was far outweighed by the dangers inhering in their very movement, States could prohibit their transportation across state lines. Hencе, we reject the state court‘s suggestion that the banning of ‘valueless’ out-of-state wastes by ch. 363 implicates no constitutional protection. Just as Congress has power to regulate the interstate movement of these wastes, States are not free from constitutional scrutiny when they restrict that movement. Cf. Hughes v. Alexandria Scrap Corp., 426 U. S. 794, 802-814; Meat Drivers v. United States, 371 U. S. 94.” 437 U. S., at 622-623.
“Any person, firm, city, village, municipal corporation or any other entity intending to withdraw ground water from any well or pit located in the State of Nebraska and transport it for use in an adjoining state shall apply to the Department of Water Resources for a permit to do so. If the Director of Water Resources finds that the withdrawal of the ground water requested is reasonable, is not contrary to the conservation and use of ground water, and is not otherwise detrimental to the public welfare, he shall grant the permit if the state in which the water is to be used grants reciprocal rights to withdraw and transport ground water from that state for use in the State of Nebraska.” 458 U. S., at 944 (quoting