1. a. Why did the Granholm court strike down the New York and Michigan laws?
b. What legal and practical justifications were presented by New York and Michigan in defense of their laws?
2. a. What choice faced the states affected by this decision?
b. What practical effect has this decision likely had on the wine industry?
3. In 1988, Oneida and Herkimer counties in upstate New York created a Solid Waste Management Authority and enacted a “flow control ordinance” requiring that all waste generated within their borders was to be delivered to the Authority’s newly created waste processing facilities. In 1995, six waste haulers and a trade association sued the Authority and the counties claiming that the flow control ordinance and associated regulations violated the Commerce Clause by discriminating against interstate commerce. The plaintiffs provided evidence that they could dispose of the waste much less expensively at out-of-state facilities. How would you rule in this case? Explain.
4. North Dakota rules required those bringing liquor into the state to file a monthly report, and out-of-state distillers selling to federal enclaves (military bases, in this instance) were required to label each item indicating that it was for consumption only within the enclave. The United States challenged those rules after sellers said they would discontinue dealing with the military bases or they would raise their prices to meet the cost of dealing with the two rules.
a. What were the constitutional foundations of the federal government’s challenge?
b. What were the state’s reasons for adopting the rules?
c. Decide. Explain.
5. Premium Standard Farms, a large Missouri hog-raising operation, was pumping manure through a two-mile-long pipe into Iowa to be spread on a farm whose operator sought the manure for fertilizer. Iowa citizens objected and asked Attorney General Tom Miller to act. Could the Iowa attorney general stop the pumping? Explain.
These consolidated cases present challenges to state laws regulating the sale of wine from out-of-state wineries to consumers in Michigan and New York. The details and mechanics of the two regulatory schemes differ, but the object and effect of the laws are the same: to allow instate wineries to sell wine directly to consumers in that state but to prohibit out-of-state wineries from doing so, or, at the least, to make direct sales impractical from an economic standpoint. It is evident that the object and design of the Michigan and New York statutes is to grant in-state wineries a competitive advantage over wineries located beyond the states’ borders.