Wyoming v. Oklahoma, 502 U.S. 437, 33 (1992)

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Cite as: 502 U. S. 437 (1992)

Scalia, J., dissenting

One of these is the requirement that the plaintiff "establish that the injury he complains of (his aggrievement, or the adverse effect upon him) falls within the 'zone of interests' sought to be protected by the statut[e] [or constitutional guarantee] whose violation forms the legal basis for his complaint." Air Courier Conference of America v. Postal Workers, 498 U. S. 517, 523-524 (1991) (internal quotation marks omitted). The "zone-of-interests" formulation first appeared in cases brought under § 10 of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U. S. C. § 702, see Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc. v. Camp, 397 U. S. 150, 153 (1970), but we have subsequently made clear that the same test similarly governs claims under the Constitution in general, see, e. g., Valley Forge, supra, at 475, and under the negative Commerce Clause in particular, see Boston Stock Exchange v. State Tax Comm'n, 429 U. S. 318, 320- 321, n. 3 (1977). Indeed, we have indicated that it is more strictly applied when a plaintiff is proceeding under a "constitutional . . . provision" instead of the "generous review provisions of the APA." Clarke v. Securities Industry Assn., 479 U. S. 388, 400, n. 16 (1987).

The zone-of-interests test "denies a right of review if the plaintiff's interests are . . . marginally related to or inconsistent with the purposes implicit in the [constitutional provision]." Id., at 394, 399. The usual starting point for zone-of-interests analysis is the text of the provision at issue, see Air Courier Conference, 498 U. S., at 524-525; since, however, the negative Commerce Clause is an inference rather than a text, the starting point here must be the history and purposes of the inference, see id., at 526-527.

Our negative Commerce Clause jurisprudence grew out of the notion that the Constitution implicitly established a national free market, under which, in Justice Jackson's words, "every farmer and every craftsman shall be encouraged to produce by the certainty that he will have free access to every market in the Nation [and] every consumer may

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