Chemical Waste Management, Inc. v. Hunt

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Chemical Waste Management, Inc. v. Hunt

Argued April 21, 1992
Decided June 1, 1992

Full case name:	Chemical Waste Management, Inc. v. Guy Hunt, Governor of Alabama et al.

Citations:	504 U.S. 334; 112 S.Ct. 2009, 34 ERC 1721, 119 L.Ed.2d 121, 60 USLW 4433, 22 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,909

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

No state may attempt to isolate itself from a problem common to the several States by raising barriers to the free flow of interstate trade.

Court membership

Chief Justice: William Rehnquist
Associate Justices: Byron White, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas

Case opinions

Majority by: White
Joined by: Blackmun, Stevens, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas
Dissent by: Rehnquist

Laws applied

Dormant Commerce Clause

Chemical Waste Management, Inc. v. Hunt, 504 U.S. 334 (1992), was a United States Supreme Court case that held that an Alabama law imposing a fee on out-of-state hazardous waste being disposed of in-state violated the Dormant Commerce Clause. Justice White explained that "No state may attempt to isolate itself from a problem common to the several States by raising barriers to the free flow of interstate trade," relying on Philadelphia v. New Jersey as precedent. The state law was found to discriminate against out-of-state commerce. Chief Justice Rehnquist dissented arguing that States may wish to avoid the risks to public health and environment by regulating the disposal of hazardous waste.