Cite as: 511 U. S. 383 (1994)
Souter, J., dissenting
2
Nor is the monopolist created by Local Law 9 just another private company successfully enlisting local government to protect the jobs and profits of local citizens. While our previous local processing cases have barred discrimination in markets served by private companies, Clarkstown's transfer station is essentially a municipal facility, built and operated under a contract with the municipality and soon to revert entirely to municipal ownership.9 This, of course, is no mere coincidence, since the facility performs a municipal function that tradition as well as state and federal law recognize as the domain of local government. Throughout the history of this country, municipalities have taken responsibility for disposing of local garbage to prevent noisome smells, obstruction of the streets, and threats to public health,10 and today
Dean Milk Court's only explanation for its statement was to cite a case striking down a statute forbidding the selling of " 'any fresh meats . . . slaughtered one hundred miles or over from the place at which it is offered for sale, until and except it has been inspected' " at a cost to its owner of a penny per pound. Brimmer v. Rebman, 138 U. S. 78, 80 (1891) (quoting Acts of Va. 1889-1890, p. 63, ch. 80). That the majority here cites also to Fort Gratiot Landfill v. Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources, supra, may indicate that it reads Dean Milk the same way I do, but then it cannot use the case to stand for the more radical proposition I quoted above.
9 At the end of a 5-year term, during which the private contractor receives profits sufficient to induce it to provide the plant in the first place, the town will presumably step into the contractor's shoes for the nominal dollar. Such contracts, enlisting a private company to build, operate, and then transfer to local government an expensive public improvement, enable municipalities to acquire public facilities without resorting to municipal funds or credit.
10 For example, in 1764 the South Carolina Legislature established a street commission for Charleston with the power "to remove all filth and rubbish, to such proper place or places, in or near the said town, as they . . . shall allot . . . ." Act of Aug. 10, 1764, ¶ 1. In New Amsterdam a century earlier, "[t]he burgomasters and schepens ordained that all such refuse be brought to dumping-grounds near the City Hall and the gallows
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