| Venue: | SCOTUS |
| Facts: | Madison has a law that milk sold there has to be pasteurized and
bottled at an approved plant within 5 miles. Madison dairies
produce about 10 times the milk needed by the ciry (5,600
dairy farms within the county). All milk sold there has to
come from an officially inspected farm, and the inspectors do
not have to travel more than 25 miles from the city.
Effectively, out-of-state milk is banned. And Dean Milk is mad. |
| Posture: | WI SC upholds the ordinance: it promotes convenient, economical, and efficient inspection of plants. |
| Issue: | Is the WI statute constitutional? |
| Holding: | No. Reversed. |
| Rule: | States can not put "an undue burden" on interstate commerce. |
| Reasoning: | This isn't struck down because of federal legislation, and the ostensible purpose of the act (public health) is legitimate. But the act protects a major local industry against out-of-state competition, and therefore plainly discriminates against interstate commerce. If we let this stand, protectionist statutes galore will spring up. |
| Dicta: | One state in its dealings with another may not place itself in
economic isolation.
Dissent: no health laws have ever been struck down before on the ground that some other method of protecting the public would be as good or better. |