Oregon Waste Systems, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality of Ore., 511 U.S. 93, 23 (1994)

Page:   Index   Previous  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  Next

98

OREGON WASTE SYSTEMS, INC. v. DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY OF ORE.

Opinion of the Court

our case law as invalidating compensatory fees only if they are " 'manifestly disproportionate to the services rendered.' " Ibid. (quoting Clark v. Paul Gray, Inc., 306 U. S. 583, 599 (1939)). Because Oregon law restricts the scope of judicial review in expedited proceedings to deciding the facial legality of administrative rules and the statutes underlying them, Ore. Rev. Stat. § 183.400 (1991), the Oregon court deemed itself precluded from deciding the factual question whether the surcharge on out-of-state waste was disproportionate. 316 Ore., at 112, 849 P. 2d, at 508.

We granted certiorari, 509 U. S. 953 (1993), because the decision below conflicted with a recent decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.3 We now reverse.

II

The Commerce Clause provides that "[t]he Congress shall have Power . . . [t]o regulate Commerce . . . among the several States." Art. I, § 8, cl. 3. Though phrased as a grant of regulatory power to Congress, the Clause has long been understood to have a "negative" aspect that denies the States the power unjustifiably to discriminate against or burden the interstate flow of articles of commerce. See, e. g., Wyoming v. Oklahoma, 502 U. S. 437, 454 (1992); Welton v. Missouri, 91 U. S. 275 (1876). The Framers granted Congress plenary authority over interstate commerce in "the conviction that in order to succeed, the new Union would have to avoid the tendencies toward economic Balkanization that had plagued relations among the Colonies and later among the States under the Articles of Confederation." Hughes v. Oklahoma, 441 U. S. 322, 325-326 (1979). See generally The Federalist No. 42 (J. Madison). "This principle that our economic unit is the Nation, which alone has the gamut of powers necessary to control of the economy, . . . has

3 Government Suppliers Consolidating Servs., Inc. v. Bayh, 975 F. 2d 1267 (1992), cert. denied, 506 U. S. 1053 (1993).

Page:   Index   Previous  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007