C&A Carbone, Inc. v. Town of Clarkstown, New York
United States Supreme Court
511 U.S. 383 (1994)
To finance a new waste facility built by a private contractor, Clarkstown (plaintiff) enacted a flow-control ordinance requiring all solid waste generated in the town to be processed at that facility for an $81-per-ton fee before leaving the municipality; Carbone (defendant), a competing waste processor, was caught illegally shipping waste directly to an out-of-state landfill to avoid the fee. Clarkstown sought to enjoin Carbone from bypassing the ordinance, and Carbone challenged the ordinance under the Commerce Clause; New York's courts sided with Clarkstown, and the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Whether a municipal ordinance requiring all locally generated waste to be processed at a single, designated local facility, favoring that facility's economic interests, violates the dormant Commerce Clause.