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Opinion of the Court
fullest, requiring the affected insurers to make the disclosures, leave the State voluntarily, or lose their licenses. ER 1097.
II
After this ultimatum, the petitioners here, several American and European insurance companies and the American Insurance Association (a national trade association), filed suit for injunctive relief against respondent insurance commissioner of California, challenging the constitutionality of HVIRA. The District Court issued a preliminary injunction against enforcing the Act, reflecting its probability judgment that "HVIRA is unconstitutional based on a violation of the federal foreign affairs power and a violation of the Commerce Clause." App. to Pet. for Cert. 110a. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit rejected these grounds for questioning the Act but left the preliminary injunction in place until the District Court could consider whether petitioners were likely to succeed on their due process claim. Gerling Global Reinsurance Corp. of America v. Low, 240 F. 3d 739, 754 (2001).
On remand, the District Court addressed two points. Although it held the Act to be within the State's "legislative jurisdiction," as it applied only to insurers licensed to do business in the State, the District Court granted summary judgment to the petitioners on the ground of a procedural due process violation in "mandating license suspension for non-performance of what may be impossible tasks without allowing for a meaningful hearing." Gerling Global Rein-surance Corp. of America v. Low, 186 F. Supp. 2d 1099, 1108, 1113 (ED Cal. 2001). In a second appeal, the same panel of the Ninth Circuit reversed again. While it agreed that the Act was not beyond the State's legislative authority, the Court of Appeals rejected the conclusion that procedural due process required an opportunity for insurers to raise an impossibility excuse for noncompliance with the law, 296 F. 3d 832, 845-848 (2002), and it reaffirmed its prior ruling that
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