HUGHES, SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION OF MARYLAND, ET AL. v. ALEXANDRIA SCRAP CORP.
No. 74-1607
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 21, 1976—Decided June 24, 1976
426 U.S. 794
Henry R. Lord, Deputy Attorney General of Maryland, argued the cause for appellants. With him on the briefs were Francis B. Burch, Attorney General, and J. Michael McWilliams and Glenn E. Bushel, Assistant Attorneys General.
Norman P. Ramsey argued the cause for appellee.
MR. JUSTICE POWELL delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case involves a two-pronged constitutional attack on a recent amendment to one part of a complex Maryland plan for ridding that State of abandoned automobiles. The three-judge District Court agreed with appellee, a Virginia scrap processor that participates in the plan, that the amendment violated the Commerce Clause and denied appellee equal protection of the laws. We disagree on both points.
I
The 1967 session of the Maryland Legislature commissioned a study to suggest some way to deal with the growing aesthetic problem of abandoned automobiles. The study concluded that the root of the problem was the existence of bottlenecks in the “scrap cycle,” the course that a vehicle follows from abandonment to processing into scrap metal for ultimate re-use by steel mills. At its 1969 session, the legislature responded by enacting a comprehensive statute designed to speed up the scrap cycle by using state money both as a carrot and as a stick.1 The statute is intricate, but its provisions relevant to this case may be sketched briefly.
The legislative study had found that one of the bottlenecks occurred in the junkyards of wrecking companies, which tended to accumulate vehicles for the resale value of their spare parts. The statute‘s stick designed to clear this bottleneck is a requirement that a Maryland wrecker
These penalty and bounty provisions work with elementary laws of economics to speed up the scrap cycle. The penalty for retention of vehicles, plus the prospect of sharing the bounty, work in tandem to encourage licensed wreckers to move vehicles to processors. The bounties to processors on vehicles from unlicensed suppliers also encourage those suppliers to deliver to the processors, because the processors are able to pay higher than normal market prices by sharing the bounties with them.5
The penalty and bounty provisions, however, did not remove another impediment to the smooth functioning of the scrap cycle that was legal rather than economic in origin. This was the possibility of suits for conversion against a processor by owners who might claim that they had not abandoned their vehicles. To meet this problem the statute specified several documents with which a processor could prove clear title to a vehicle, and required that a processor obtain one of these documents from its supplier and submit it to the State as a condition of receiving the bounty. One of the documents, called a “Wrecker‘s Certificate,” can be given only by a wrecker licensed under the statute.6 It is essentially a clear title that the wrecker secures by following statutory notice procedures at the time it first obtains a vehicle. Suppliers other than licensed wreckers must provide some other document—either a properly endorsed certificate of title, a certificate from a police department vesting title in the supplier after statutory notices, or a bill of sale from a police auction.7
These documentation requirements, although vital for the protection of processors, are themselves some slight encumbrance upon the free transfer of abandoned vehicles to processors. Apparently in recognition of this fact, and the reduced potential for owners’ claims in the case of ancient automobiles, the statute placed vehicles over eight years old and inoperable (“hulks“) into a special category. Section 11-1002.2 (f) (5) of the stat-
A
The statute extends its burdens of fines, and its benefits in the form of a share in bounties, only to wreckers that maintain junkyards located in Maryland, and requires a license only of those wreckers. There is no similar residency requirement for scrap processors that wish to obtain a license and participate in the bounty program,9 and in fact seven of the 16 scrap processors that have participated are located in either Pennsylvania or Virginia. Appellee, a Virginia corporation with a processing plant near the Potomac River in Alexandria, was an original licensee under the Maryland statute. Presumably because of its proximity to the southern Maryland
As is apparently the case with most of the licensed processors, virtually all (96%) of the bounty-eligible vehicles processed by appellee during that period were hulks, upon which appellee did not have to demand title documentation from its suppliers in order later to receive the bounty. In the summer of 1974, however, Maryland changed significantly the treatment of hulks by amending
B
The complaint in this case was filed shortly after the effective date of the amendment to
Appellee contended below that the 1974 amendment to
II
In this Court appellee relies on the Commerce Clause
The practical effect of the amendment, however, was to limit the enhanced price available to unlicensed suppliers to hulks that stayed inside Maryland, thus discouraging such suppliers from taking their hulks out of State for processing. The result was that the movement of hulks in interstate commerce was reduced.13 Appellee
The District Court accepted appellee‘s analysis, and concluded that the 1974 amendment failed the Pike test. First, the court found that the amendment did impose “substantial burdens upon the free flow of interstate commerce.” 391 F. Supp., at 62. Moreover, it considered the disadvantage suffered by out-of-state processors to be particularly suspect under previous decisions of this Court, noting that to avoid the disadvantage those processors would have to build new plants inside Maryland to carry on a business which, prior to the amendment, they had pursued efficiently outside the State. See Foster-Fountain Packing Co. v. Haydel, 278 U. S. 1 (1928); Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., supra, at 145. Maryland‘s principal argument in support of the amendment was that, by making it difficult for out-of-state processors to claim bounties on hulks delivered by unlicensed suppliers, the amendment tends to reduce the amount of state funds paid for destruction of Maryland-titled hulks abandoned in the States where those processors are
This line of reasoning is not without force if its basic premise is accepted. That premise is that every action by a State that has the effect of reducing in some manner the flow of goods in interstate commerce is potentially an impermissible burden. But we are not persuaded that Maryland‘s action in amending its statute was the kind of action with which the Commerce Clause is concerned.
The situation presented by this statute and the 1974 amendment is quite unlike that found in the cases upon which appellee relies. In the most recent of those cases, Pike v. Bruce Church, supra, a burden was found to be imposed by an Arizona requirement that fresh fruit grown in the State be packed there before shipment interstate. The requirement prohibited the interstate shipment of fruit in bulk, no matter what the market demand for such shipments. In H. P. Hood & Sons v. Du Mond, 336 U. S. 525 (1949), a New York official denied a license to a milk distributor who wanted to open a new plant at which to receive raw milk from New York farmers for immediate shipment to Boston. The denial blocked a potential increase in the interstate movement of raw milk. Appellee also relies upon Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U. S. 385 (1948), in which this Court found interstate commerce in raw shrimp to be burdened by a South Carolina requirement that shrimp boats fishing off its coast dock in South Carolina and pack and pay taxes on their catches before trans-
The common thread of all these cases is that the State interfered with the natural functioning of the interstate market either through prohibition or through burdensome regulation. By contrast, Maryland has not sought to prohibit the flow of hulks, or to regulate the conditions under which it may occur. Instead, it has entered into the market itself to bid up their price. There has been an impact upon the interstate flow of hulks only because, since the 1974 amendment, Maryland effectively has made it more lucrative for unlicensed suppliers to dispose of their hulks in Maryland rather than take them outside the State.15
Appellee recognizes that the situation presented by this case is without precedent in this Court. It argues that the 1974 amendment nevertheless must be subjected to the same scrutiny as the state actions in earlier cases, because “[w]hat is controlling . . . is not the means by which Maryland has chosen to discriminate, but the practical effect of that discrimination upon interstate commerce.” Brief for Appellee 63. In short, appellee urges that the alleged burden upon interstate commerce from the 1974 amendment “is not immunized by its novelty.” Ibid.
We believe, however, that the novelty of this case is not its presentation of a new form of “burden” upon commerce, but that appellee should characterize Maryland‘s action as a burden which the Commerce Clause was intended to make suspect. The Clause was designed in part to prevent trade barriers that had undermined efforts of the fledgling States to form a cohesive whole following their victory in the Revolution.16 This
“Our system, fostered by the Commerce Clause, is that every farmer and every craftsman shall be encouraged to produce by the certainty that he will have free access to every market in the Nation, that no home embargoes will withhold his exports, and no foreign state will by customs duties or regulations exclude them. Likewise, every consumer may look to the free competition from every producing area in the Nation to protect him from exploitation by any. Such was the vision of the Founders; such has been the doctrine of this Court which has given it reality. . . .” H. P. Hood & Sons v. Du Mond, supra, at 539.
In realizing the Founders’ vision this Court has adhered strictly to the principle “that the right to engage in interstate commerce is not the gift of a state, and that a state cannot regulate or restrain it.” Id., at 535.17 But until today the Court has not been asked to hold that the entry by the State itself into the market as a purchaser, in effect, of a potential article of interstate commerce creates a burden upon that commerce if the State restricts its trade to its own citizens or businesses within the State.
III
The District Court also found the 1974 amendment to be violative of the Equal Protection Clause.21 Appellee
Maryland argues that the distinction between domestic and foreign processors in the 1974 amendment is related to the basic statutory purpose of clearing Maryland‘s landscape of abandoned automobiles. Underlying this argument are the complementary assumptions that hulks delivered to Maryland processors are likely to have been abandoned in Maryland, and those delivered to non-Maryland processors are likely to have been abandoned outside Maryland. Based upon those assumptions, the
The District Court rejected this argument with the observation that Maryland had “not proffered a scintilla of factual support for [its] assumption that nonresident processors are more likely than in-state processors to claim bounties for vehicles abandoned outside of Maryland.” 391 F. Supp., at 57. The District Court demanded too much. Maryland‘s underlying assumptions certainly are not irrational: in terms of likelihood, the Maryland Legislature reasonably could assume that a hulk destroyed by a non-Maryland processor is more likely to have been abandoned outside Maryland than is a hulk destroyed by a Maryland processor, and vice versa. The State is not compelled to verify logical assumptions with statistical evidence.22
Appellee contends that the alleged relationship of the amendment to the statutory purpose is belied by a “loophole” in the statute that remains even after the amendment. This “loophole” results from the fact that the statute conditions the payment of bounty upon previous titling of a vehicle in Maryland, rather than upon proof of its abandonment in that State. Thus, even after the 1974 amendment an in-state processor remains free to
It is well established, however, that a statutory classification impinging upon no fundamental interest, and especially one dealing only with economic matters, need not be drawn so as to fit with precision the legitimate purposes animating it. Williamson v. Lee Optical Co., 348 U. S. 483, 489 (1955). That Maryland might have furthered its underlying purpose more artfully, more directly, or more completely, does not warrant a conclusion that the method it chose is unconstitutional. See Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 U. S. 641, 657 (1966).
Moreover, the statute in its present form still allows payment of bounty on a hulk to a non-Maryland processor upon proper documentation of title. The logic in support of the 1974 amendment—that Maryland processors are more likely than out-of-state processors to . . .
Few would contend that Maryland has taken the straightest road to its goal, either in its original drafting of the statute or in the refinement introduced by the 1974 amendment. But in the area in which this bounty scheme operates the
We hold that the District Court erred in finding the 1974 amendment invalid under either the
So ordered.
MR. JUSTICE STEVENS, concurring.
The dissent creates the impression that the Court‘s opinion, which I join without reservation, represents a significant retreat from its settled practice in adjudicat
It is important to differentiate between commerce which flourishes in a free market and commerce which owes its existence to a state subsidy program. Our cases finding that a state regulation constitutes an impermissible burden on interstate commerce all dealt with restrictions that adversely affected the operation of a free market. This case is unique because the commerce which Maryland has “burdened” is commerce which would not exist if Maryland had not decided to subsidize a portion of the automobile scrap-processing business.
By artificially enhancing the value of certain abandoned hulks, Maryland created a market that did not previously exist.* The program which Maryland initiated in 1969 included subsidies for scrapping plants located in Virginia and Pennsylvania as well as for plants located in Maryland. Those subsidies stimulated the movement of abandoned hulks from Maryland to out-of-state scrapping plants and thereby gave rise to the interstate commerce which is at stake in this litigation.
That commerce, which is now said to be burdened, would never have existed if in the first instance Maryland had decided to confine its subsidy to operators of Maryland plants. A failure to create that commerce would have been unobjectionable because the
Since Maryland did subsidize Virginia and Pennsylvania plants from 1969 to 1974, it is easy to describe the elimination of the out-of-state subsidy as a burden on interstate commerce. Indeed, we may assume that the temporarily subsidized interstate business has now been totally eliminated. It does not follow, however, that such a “burden” is impermissible.
Unquestionably Maryland could terminate its entire program, discontinuing subsidy payments to Maryland operators as well as out-of-state firms, without offending the Constitution. Since, by hypothesis, we are dealing with a business that is dependent on the availability of subsidy payments, such a complete termination of Maryland‘s program would have precisely the same effect on the out-of-state plants as the partial termination effected in 1974. The “burden” on the Virginia processor is caused by the nonreceipt of the subsidy, regardless of whether or not Maryland elects to continue to subsidize its local plants. It follows, I believe, that the constitutional issue presented by the 1974 amendment is the same as the question which would have arisen if Maryland had never made the subsidy available to out-of-state concerns.
This is the first case in which any litigant has asked a federal court to address the question whether a state
MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN, with whom MR. JUSTICE WHITE and MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL join, dissenting.
The Court continues its reinterpretation of the
I
I note that appellants do not claim and the Court does not and could not find that the market for scrap metal—including its processing—is not interstate commerce. In addition, there is no claim by appellee that Maryland, if it wishes to run a bounty program to achieve its environmental objectives, must pay a bounty on all scrap hulks irrespective of their State of origin as abandoned vehicles. Plainly Maryland pursuant to its environmental program may “artificially enhance” the price of only those hulks originating as abandoned vehicles within its boundaries. The only questions respecting the Commerce Clause concern the issue of whether Maryland may in effect require that the processing of such scrap, an aspect of its program not obviously related in the first instance to its environmental objectives, be restricted to processors located within the State in light of the asserted governmental objectives in so doing and the consequent effect upon interstate commerce.
However, I cannot agree with the Court that this case is solely to be analyzed in terms of Maryland‘s “purchase” of items of interstate commerce and its restriction of such “purchases” to items processed in its own State. The result of this single-minded concept of the issues presented is that the Court in my view not only erroneously decides a weighty constitutional question not previously directly addressed by this Court, but also that it ignores another and equally pressing issue under the
II
I first address the question that the Court answers: the question whether a State may restrict its purchases
Moreover, the particular form of discrimination arising when the State restricts its purchases for use to items produced in its own State is of a kind particularly suspect under our precedents, as it is aimed directly at re
It is true, as the Court notes, that we have not previously directly addressed the question whether, when a State enters the market as purchaser for end use of items in interstate commerce, it may “[restrict] its trade to its own citizens or businesses within the State.” Ante, at 808.3 The novelty of the question, however, does not
I would hold, consistent with accepted Commerce Clause principles, that state statutes that facially or in practical effect restrict state purchases of items in interstate commerce to those produced within the State are invalid unless justified by asserted state interests—other than economic protectionism—in regulating matters of local concern for which “reasonable nondiscriminatory alternatives, adequate to conserve legitimate local interests, are [not] available.” Dean Milk Co. v. Madison, 340 U. S. 349, 354 (1951). See Great A&P Tea Co. v. Cottrell, 424 U. S., at 373; Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., supra, at 142; Polar Ice Cream & Creamery Co. v. Andrews, 375 U. S. 361, 375 n. 9 (1964); Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig, Inc., supra, at 524.5
For my conclusions respecting whether the instant statutory discrimination may be justified under accepted Commerce Clause principles, see infra, Part IV.
Second, the Court‘s insistence on viewing this case as qualitatively different under the Commerce Clause merely because the State is in some sense acting as a “purchaser” of the affected items of commerce leads it completely to forgo analysis of another equally vital question. For even those courts and commentators that have concluded that facially restrictive state purchasing statutes are permissible under the Commerce Clause, e. g., American Yearbook Co. v. Askew, 339 F. Supp. 719 (MD Fla.), summarily aff‘d, 409 U. S. 904 (1972); McAllister, Court, Congress and Trade Barriers, 16 Ind. L. J. 144, 164-165 (1940), have restricted this conclusion to instances where the State in a “proprietary” capacity is purchasing items of commerce for end use, and have distinguished other modes of regulation burdening interstate commerce. But it is clear that Maryland in the instant case is not “purchasing” scrap processing for end use; rather, by in effect requiring “price enhanced” hulks to be processed within the State of Maryland, it is affecting one link in the chain of interstate commerce for scrap metal, a line of commerce that originates prior to Maryland‘s regulation and continues long past that point. Even if, as the Court concludes, state economic protectionism in “purchasing” items of interstate commerce is not a suspect motive under the Commerce Clause, analysis in this case cannot cease at that point, for by the instant regulation Maryland is allegedly affecting a larger area of commerce by diverting processing of scrap metal in interstate commerce to within its own boundaries.6
“Where the statute regulates evenhandedly to effectuate a legitimate local public interest, and its effects on interstate commerce are only incidental, it will be upheld unless the burden imposed on such commerce is clearly excessive in relation to the putative local benefits. . . . If a legitimate local purpose is found, then the question becomes one of degree. And the extent of the burden that will be tolerated will of course depend on the nature of the local interest involved, and on whether it could be pro
moted as well with a lesser impact on interstate activities.” Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U. S., at 142.
Mr. Justice Frankfurter, universally recognized to be among the foremost students and judicial practitioners of the jurisprudence of the Commerce Clause, has said:
“The Willson decision [Willson v. Black-Bird Creek Marsh Co., 2 Pet. 245 (1829)] begins a wholesome emphasis upon the concrete elements of the situation that concerns both state and national interests. The particularities of a local statute touch its special aims and the scope of their fulfillment, the difficulties which it seeks to adjust, the price at which it does so. . . . These and kindred practical considerations, in their myriad manifestations, have weighed with the Court in determining the fate of state legislation impinging on the activities of national commerce, ever since Marshall in the Willson case set the standard for deciding such controversies ‘under all the circumstances of the case.’ . . . In the history of the Supreme Court no single quality more differentiates judges than the acuteness of their realization that practical considerations, however screened by doctrine, underlie resolution of conflicts between state and national power.” F. Frankfurter, The Commerce Clause Under Marshall, Taney and Waite 33-34 (1937).
The Court today fails that test in my view by mechanically concluding that Maryland‘s action is not “the kind of action with which the Commerce Clause is concerned,” ante, at 805, merely because the State is in some sense acting as a “purchaser” of items in interstate commerce. In the absence of some limiting principle, this is a dis
It may well be, as developed in Part IV, infra, that there are limiting principles in the circumstances of this case because, by means of its policy restricting the location of scrap processing, Maryland is truly regulating matters of local concern respecting its environment and there is as a practical matter an absence of “reasonable nondiscriminatory alternatives, adequate to conserve legitimate local interests.” Dean Milk Co. v. Madison, supra, at 354. But the Court fails to search for such limiting circumstances and shuts off analysis merely because of the form of the state regulation, thus effectively “immun[izing]” state “statutes . . . requiring that certain kinds of processing be done in the home State before shipment to a sister State,” Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., supra, at 141, so long as the mode of regulation may be characterized as the State functioning as a “purchaser.” Clearly, if the States are to be absolutely unrestrained in their regulation of interstate markets so long as they use methods that may fairly be characterized as “purchasing” items by “artificially enhancing” the price, then the door is open for the States to “‘set up what is equivalent to a rampart of customs duties designed to neutralize advantages belonging to the place of origin.‘” Polar Ice Cream & Creamery Co. v. Andrews, 375 U. S., at 377.
Maryland argues that its effective preclusion of out-of-state scrap processors from the relevant portion of the bounty program is required in order to help ensure that bounty payments are limited to hulks abandoned within Maryland and that its public funds are not used in effect to aid in the clearance of hulks abandoned in other States. Certainly this asserted interest is a legitimate object of local concern, and since Willson v. Black-Bird Creek Marsh Co., 2 Pet. 245 (1829), we have “recognized that, in the absence of conflicting legislation by Congress, there is a residuum of power in the state to make laws governing matters of local concern which nevertheless in some measure affect interstate commerce or even, to some extent, regulate it.” Southern Pacific Co. v. Arizona ex rel. Sullivan, 325 U. S., at 767; see Huron Cement Co. v. Detroit, 362 U. S. 440, 443-444 (1960). But the mere assertion of a legitimate local interest being served by the challenged regulation does not end the matter, for there exists an “infinite variety of cases, in which regulation of local matters may also operate as a regulation of commerce, in which reconciliation of the conflicting claims of state and national power is to be attained only by some appraisal and accommodation of the competing demands of the state and national interests involved.” Southern Pacific Co. v. Arizona ex rel. Sullivan, supra, at 768-769. In resolving such questions in close cases, the Court is necessarily involved in “differences of degree [resolution of which] depend[s] on slight differences of fact.” H. P. Hood & Sons, Inc. v. Du Mond, 336 U. S., at 572 (Frankfurter, J., dissenting); Southern Pacific Co. v. Arizona ex rel. Sullivan, supra, at 796 (Douglas, J., dissenting), and an adequate record containing the “relevant factual material which will ‘afford a sure basis’ for an informed judgment” is required.
This case comes to us in a summary judgment posture, and, respecting the impact of the state regulation on the larger area of interstate commerce, the record as the Court notes “contains no details of the hulk [processing] market prior to the bounty scheme.” Ante, at 809 n. 18.8 Similarly, respecting the State‘s justification for the preclusion of out-of-state processors—ensuring that bounties are not paid for hulks originating out of State—the record, as the Court also notes but only in the equal protection context, contains no evidence of whether this objective is in fact achieved by the challenged action or in what degree. Nor is the record developed in regard to the availability of “reasonable nondiscriminatory alternatives, adequate to conserve [this] legitimate local [interest].” Dean Milk Co. v. Madison, 340 U. S., at 354. The only evidence in the record is speculative at best, revealing that neither the statute nor administrative regulations promulgated thereunder limit bounty payments to hulks originating in Maryland or protect against hulks originating out of State from being processed by in-state processors under the bounty program. Nevertheless, an adequately developed factual record might well inform a judgment that the simple preclusion of out-of-state processors, in light of transportation costs to scrap haulers when they haul Maryland hulks to out-of-state processors, is as reasonable and inexpensive a
Notes
The complaint alleges that “[a] substantial portion of the Plaintiff‘s business consists of the destruction and processing of vehicles acquired in interstate commerce from towers and other third persons in Maryland“; that the challenged amendment “enabl[es] Maryland scrap processors to provide financial inducements to [towers] while depriving the plaintiff of the ability to provide [the] same“; that “[i]n consequence . . . the plaintiff is placed at a severe competitive and economic disadvantage with Maryland scrap processors because of the arbitrary diversion of [hulks] away from the normal channels of interstate commerce“; and that appellee has been “depriv[ed] . . . of a vital source of scrap, iron, steel and nonferrous scrap which normally moved in interstate commerce.” Id., at 10A-11A.
The stipulated facts establish that the “market value of . . . hulks is heavily dependent upon the prices steel mills are willing to pay for . . . scrap [metal], which in turn is influenced by national and international economic conditions,” and that “[t]he result is relatively fierce competition by scrap processors for the acquisition of the available . . . hulks.” Id., at 59A.
An uncontradicted affidavit in the record asserts that “[t]he lifeblood of the scrap metal processing industry is old cars,” that “[t]he primary source of Plaintiff‘s raw materials is trade in . . . hulks,” and that “[a] very substantial portion of the Plaintiff‘s trade in old cars is derived from Maryland.” Id., at 74A-75A. “The ability to acquire eight year old or older [hulks] from Maryland . . . is of crucial importance to the conduct of the Plaintiff‘s business,” id., at 78A, and the market response to the challenged amendment which disabled appellee from passing the bounty on to the haulers “was an almost total abandonment of Plaintiff by its former regular [haulers participating in the bounty program].” “[I]n times of scarcity of old cars when both the offering price is high and the competition [among scrap processors] for the available cars is sharpest, the ability to [pass the bounty on to the scrap haulers] which is, in effect, an offer of a higher price without increasing the cost of the raw material to the processor, imparts a distinct competitive edge to those processors fully able to participate in the bounty program.” Id., at 82A-83A.
The preamble to the Act amending the method by which scrap processors may obtain title sufficient for participation in the bounty program and limiting the only practical method to scrap processors located within the State declares that the Act is “[f]or the purpose of protecting certain scrap processors who destroy certain abandoned motor vehicles . . . .” Id., at 15A (emphasis in original).
The concurring opinion asserts that the interstate market in processing scrap metal allegedly burdened by Maryland‘s bounty scheme as amended “was previously too small to be significant.” Ante, at 815 n. Nothing in the record supports this factual judgment, as appellants themselves argue, Brief for Appellants 37-39; Reply Brief for Appellants 2-3, and as the Court below noted, 391 F. Supp. 46, 62 (1975).“Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, any person, firm, corporation, or unit of government upon whose property or in whose possession any abandoned motor vehicle is found, or any person being the owner of a motor vehicle whose title certificate is faulty, or destroyed, may dispose of the motor vehicle to a wrecker or scrap processor without the title and without notification procedures of subsection (c) [subsections (a) and (b)] of this section, if the motor vehicle is over eight years old and has no engine or is otherwise totally inoperable.” (Emphasis supplied.)
Section 5-205, mentioned in the amendment, is the only statutory provision authorizing bounty payments. See supra, at 797. Without the benefit of § 11-1002.2 (f) (5) following the 1974 amendment, out-of-state processors must depend upon other sections that authorize a § 5-205 bounty only upon more elaborate title documentation. See supra, at 798.“In those cases only, a scrap processor whose plant is physically located and operating in this State shall execute an indemnity agreement that shall be filed with the Motor Vehicle Administration. The indemnity agreement shall contain the name, address and signature of the person delivering the vehicle. The indemnity agreement and the manufacturer‘s serial or identification number shall be satisfactory proof that the vehicle has been destroyed and shall be acceptable for payment of the full bounty authorized by section 5-205 if the vehicle identified in the indemnity agreement was titled in this State. Otherwise, for the purpose of administering the provisions of this section, the provisions of section 5-205 shall not apply.”
“Old and inoperable hulks continued to fetch an ‘artifically enhanced value’ for their suppliers, but only if delivered intrastate to ‘a scrap processor whose plant is physically located and operating’ in Maryland. Old and inoperable hulks exported for processing in contiguous states were ineligible for bounty and sold at much
lower prices prevailing on the free market for scrap metal. For towing services and other unlicensed suppliers, in business for profit and attracted by high prices, transactions with licensed processors beyond Maryland‘s borders now entailed financial sacrifice. Accordingly, their hulks were withdrawn from interstate commerce and delivered for processing within Maryland for the bounty-generated rebates which only Maryland-based processors could provide.” Brief for Appellee 34.
. . .
“As evils are wont to do, they dictated the character and scope of their own remedy. This lay specifically in the commerce clause. No prohibition of trade barriers as among the states could have been effective of its own force or by trade agreements. Power adequate to make and enforce the prohibition was required. Hence, the necessity for creating an entirely new scheme of government.” W. Rutledge, A Declaration of Legal Faith 25-26 (1947). See H. P. Hood & Sons v. Du Mond, 336 U. S. 525, 533-535 (1949).We also note that appellee undertook to build no new plant nor add additional machinery in reliance upon the prospect of receiving additional hulks under the Maryland bounty scheme. Instead, appellee stipulated in the District Court that participation in the program has caused no alteration in its method of operation. We intimate no view as to the consequences, if any, in a Commerce Clause case of a different state of facts in this respect. Cf. Pennsylvania v. West Virginia, 262 U. S. 553, 587 (1923); F. Ribble, State and National Power over Commerce 219 (1937).