Maine v. Taylor

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Maine v. Taylor

Argued March 24, 1986
Decided June 23, 1986


Full case name:	Maine v. Taylor et al.

Citations:	477 U.S. 131; 106 S. Ct. 2440; 91 L. Ed. 2d 110; 1986 U.S. LEXIS 111

Prior history:	In City of Philadelphia v. New Jersey, the court ruled that New Jersey's ban of out-of-state solid waste was facially discriminatory to the state's residents in a national market and was therefore overturned.

Holding

States may not prohibit the importation of out-of-state goods moving within the flow of commerce.

Court membership

Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices: William J. Brennan, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., William Rehnquist, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor

Case opinions

Majority by: Blackmun
Joined by: Burger, Brennan, White, Marshall, Powell, Rehnquist, O'Connor
Dissent by: Stevens

Laws applied

Dormant Commerce Clause

Maine v. Taylor, 477 U.S. 131 (1986)^[1], was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that there was an exception to the "virtually per se invalidity" rule of the dormant commerce clause. The Supreme Court of the United States found that a Maine law prohibiting the importation of out-of-state bait fish was constitutional because Maine authorities couldn't be certain that imported fish would be free of "parasites and non-native species" that might pose environmental harm to local ecology. Discriminatory laws may be upheld only if they serve "legitimate local purposes that could not adequately be served by available nondiscriminatory alternatives," wrote Justice Blackmun, author of the majority opinion.