Cite as: 504 U. S. 353 (1992)
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
monsense notion that those responsible for a problem should be responsible for its solution to the degree they are responsible for the problem but not further. At a minimum, I think the facts just outlined suggest the State must be allowed to present evidence on the economic, environmental, and other effects of its legislation.
The Court suggests that our decisions in Brimmer v. Rebman, 138 U. S. 78 (1891), and Dean Milk Co. v. Madison, 340 U. S. 349 (1951), foreclose the possibility that a statute attacked on Commerce Clause grounds may be defended by pointing to the statute's effects on intrastate commerce. But our decisions in those cases did not rest on such a broad proposition. Instead, as the passages quoted by the Court make clear, in both Brimmer and Dean Milk the Court simply rejected the notion that there could be a noneconomic protectionist reason for the bans at issue, because the objects being banned presented no health or environmental risk. See Brimmer, 138 U. S., at 83 ("[i]f the object of Virginia had been to obstruct the bringing into that State, for uses as human food, of all beef, veal and mutton, however wholesome" (emphasis added)); see also ibid. (comparing the statute to one that bans meat from other States "in whatever form, and although entirely sound and fit for human food" (emphasis added)); Dean Milk, 340 U. S., at 354 (the statute "excludes from distribution in Madison wholesome milk" (emphasis added)). It seems unlikely that the waste here is "wholesome" or "entirely sound and fit." It appears, instead, to be potentially dangerous—at least the State has so concluded. Nor does the legislation appear to protect "a major local industry against competition from without the State." Ibid. Neither Dean Milk nor Brimmer prohibits a State from adopting health and safety regulations that are directed to legitimate local concerns. See Maine v. Taylor, 477 U. S. 131 (1986). I would remand this case to give the State an opportunity to show that this is such a regulation.
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