Cite as: 520 U. S. 564 (1997)
Scalia, J., dissenting
Waste Systems, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality of Ore., 511 U. S. 93, 99 (1994).
While the "virtually per se rule of invalidity" entails application of the "strictest scrutiny," Hughes v. Oklahoma, 441 U. S. 322, 337 (1979), it does not necessarily result in the invalidation of facially discriminatory state legislation, see, e. g., Maine v. Taylor, 477 U. S. 131 (1986) (upholding absolute ban on the importation of baitfish into Maine), for "what may appear to be a 'discriminatory' provision in the constitutionally prohibited sense—that is, a protectionist enactment—may on closer analysis not be so," New Energy Co. of Ind. v. Limbach, 486 U. S. 269, 278 (1988). Thus, even a statute that erects an absolute barrier to the movement of goods across state lines will be upheld if "the discrimination is demonstrably justified by a valid factor unrelated to economic protectionism," id., at 274, or to put a finer point on it, if the state law "advances a legitimate local purpose that cannot be adequately served by reasonable nondiscriminatory alternatives," id., at 278.
In addition to laws that employ suspect means as a necessary expedient to the advancement of legitimate state ends, we have also preserved from judicial invalidation laws that confer advantages upon the State's residents but do so without regulating interstate commerce. We have therefore excepted the State from scrutiny when it participates in markets rather than regulates them—by selling cement, for example, see Reeves, Inc. v. Stake, 447 U. S. 429 (1980), or purchasing auto hulks, see Hughes v. Alexandria Scrap Corp., 426 U. S. 794 (1976), or hiring contractors, see White v. Massachusetts Council of Constr. Employers, Inc., 460 U. S. 204 (1983). Likewise, we have said that direct subsidies to domestic industry do not run afoul of the Commerce Clause. See New Energy Co., supra, at 278. In sum, we have declared that "[t]he Commerce Clause does not prohibit all state action designed to give its residents an advantage in the marketplace, but only action of that description in con-
597
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