Judge OK's Flow Control

A federal district court in New York state has upheld a flow-control law adopted by the Oneida-Herkimer (N.Y.) Solid Waste Management Authority. The ruling comes almost four years after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the regulation does not discriminate against the flow of interstate commerce because the designated disposal sites — unlike the one in the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1994 Carbone decision — are publicly owned. The law was deemed to evenhandedly affect all in- and out-of-state private businesses.

The appeals court, which covers New York, Connecticut and Vermont, then sent the case back to the lower court to determine whether any incidental burdens placed on interstate commerce by the ordinance exceed the benefits to the local community. For more information on the ruling, see “Flow Motion” in Legal Lode on p. 20.