Con Law · WikiFramers

Part One - The Structure of Government · Module 7A

The Dormant Commerce Clause

Limits on state protectionism that Congress never wrote: discrimination analysis, Pike balancing, and the market-participant exception.

Topics

Why a dormant Commerce Clause? Determining whether a law is discriminatory; facially discriminatory and facially neutral laws. Analysis of discriminatory laws. Analysis of non-discriminatory laws. Extraterritorial effects. Exceptions: congressional approval and the market participant doctrine.

Reading list

0 of 15 readings published · the rest are in preparation and will appear here as they are edited

  1. Opinion City of Philadelphia v. New Jersey in preparation
  2. Note Dean Milk Co. v. City of Madison in preparation
  3. Note Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission in preparation
  4. Note Maine v. Taylor in preparation
  5. Note West Lynn Creamery, Inc. v. Healy in preparation
  6. Opinion Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas in preparation
  7. Opinion Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc. in preparation
  8. Note Exxon Corp. v. Governor of Maryland in preparation
  9. Note Minnesota v. Clover Leaf Creamery Co. in preparation
  10. Note Bibb v. Navajo Freight Lines, Inc. in preparation
  11. Opinion National Pork Producers Council v. Ross in preparation
  12. Note Western & Southern Life Insurance Co. v. State Board of Equalization of California in preparation
  13. Note Reeves, Inc. v. Stake in preparation
  14. Note White v. Massachusetts Council of Construction Employers, Inc. in preparation
  15. Note South-Central Timber Development, Inc. v. Wunnicke in preparation
  16. Current case Peridot Tree WA, Inc. v. Washington State Liquor & Cannabis Control Board, Nos. 24-3481 & 24-7196 (9th Cir. Jan. 2, 2026) (Bress, J.) (whether the dormant Commerce Clause applies at all to a market Congress has made federally unlawful; note the split with the First and Second Circuits). in preparation
How to read this list

A case named without a marker is assigned as an opinion and is to be read in its entirety. Opinion (edited) means the Professor has cut it for length; the text on this site is the assigned text. Note means the case is not assigned as an opinion at all — its holding, its facts to the extent they matter, and its place in the doctrinal line are given in a note written for this course, and you are responsible for that note exactly as you are responsible for an assigned opinion. Most modules close with a Current case, a recent decision chosen because it shows the doctrine you have just read being applied at its live edge; current cases are assigned as opinions. You are responsible for all assigned required materials, including the notes, questions, problems and commentary that accompany the cases, whether or not we discuss them in class.