584
Opinion of the Court
at 128. See also Polish National Alliance of United States v. NLRB, 322 U. S. 643 (1944).
We have similarly held that federal antitrust laws are
applicable to the anticompetitive activities of nonprofit organizations. See National Collegiate Athletic Assn. v. Board of Regents of Univ. of Okla., 468 U. S. 85, 100, n. 22 (1984) (Sherman Act § 1 applies to nonprofits); American Soc. of Mechanical Engineers, Inc. v. Hydrolevel Corp., 456 U. S. 556, 576 (1982) ("[I]t is beyond debate that nonprofit organizations can be held liable under the antitrust laws"); Gold-farb v. Virginia State Bar, 421 U. S. 773 (1975). The nonprofit character of an enterprise does not place it beyond the purview of federal laws regulating commerce. See also NLRB v. Yeshiva Univ., 444 U. S. 672, 681, n. 11 (1980) (noting that in context of amendments to National Labor Relations Act "Congress appears to have agreed that nonprofit institutions 'affect commerce' under modern economic conditions").
We have already held that the dormant Commerce Clause is applicable to activities undertaken without the intention of earning a profit. In Edwards v. California, 314 U. S. 160 (1941), we addressed the constitutionality of a California statute prohibiting the transport into that State of indigent persons. We struck the statute down as a violation of the dormant Commerce Clause, reasoning that "the transportation of persons is 'commerce,' " and that the California statute was an "unconstitutional barrier to [that] interstate commerce." Id., at 172-173. In determining whether the transportation of persons is "commerce," we noted that "[i]t is immaterial whether or not the transportation is commercial in character." Id., at 172, n. 1.
We see no reason why the nonprofit character of an enterprise should exclude it from the coverage of either the affirmative or the negative aspect of the Commerce Clause. See Hughes, 441 U. S., at 326, n. 2; Philadelphia v. New Jersey, 437 U. S., at 621-623 (rejecting "two-tiered definition of commerce"); Sporhase, 458 U. S., at 953; see also supra, at
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