Fort Gratiot Sanitary Landfill, Inc. v. Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources, 504 U.S. 353, 14 (1992)

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366

FORT GRATIOT SANITARY LANDFILL, INC. v. MICHIGAN DEPT. OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Opinion of the Court

difference between economic protectionism, on the one hand, and health and safety regulation, on the other—is even arguably relevant to this case.7 We may assume that all of the provisions of Michigan's SWMA prior to the 1988 amendments adding the Waste Import Restrictions could fairly be characterized as health and safety regulations with no protectionist purpose, but we cannot make that same assumption with respect to the Waste Import Restrictions themselves. Because those provisions unambiguously discriminate against interstate commerce, the State bears the burden of proving that they further health and safety concerns that cannot be adequately served by nondiscriminatory alternatives. Michigan and St. Clair County have not met this burden.8

Michigan and St. Clair County assert that the Waste Import Restrictions are necessary because they enable individual counties to make adequate plans for the safe disposal of future waste.9 Although accurate forecasts about the vol-7 The other reasons were related to the special role that States have traditionally played in the ownership and control of ground water and to the fact that Nebraska's conservation efforts had given the water some indicia of a good that is publicly produced and owned. See id., at 956. There are, however, no analogous traditional legal expectations regarding state regulation of private landfills, which are neither publicly produced nor publicly owned.

8 The dissent states that we should remand for further proceedings in which Michigan and St. Clair County might be able to prove that the Waste Import Restrictions constitute legitimate health and safety regulations, rather than economic protectionism of the State's limited landfill capacity. See post, at 368, 371. We disagree, for respondents have neither asked for such a remand nor suggested that, if given the opportunity, they could prove that the restrictions further health and safety concerns that cannot adequately be served by nondiscriminatory alternatives.

9 "An unregulated free market flow of waste into Michigan," the State asserts, "would be disruptive of efforts to plan for the proper disposal of future waste due to incoming waste from sources not accounted for during the planning process." Brief for State Respondents 49; see also Brief for County Respondents 13.

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