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Page Number: 34.0

28 

NATIONAL PORK PRODUCERS COUNCIL v. ROSS 

Opinion of the Court 

or Water, from any of the United States of America”; and 
Virginia taxed “vessels coming within th[e S]tate from any 
of the United States.”  An Act Laying Certain Duties of Ex-
cise Upon Certain Articles, Feb. 24, 1783 R. I. Acts and Re-
solves 45; An Act for Levying and Collecting a Duty on Cer-
tain  Articles  of  Goods,  Wares  and  Merchandize  Imported 
into  this  State,  by  Land  or  Water,  1784  Conn.  Acts  and 
Laws 271; An Act to Amend the Act for Ascertaining Cer-
tain Taxes and Duties, and for Establishing a Permanent
Revenue (May 6, 1782), in 11 Statues at Large, Laws of Vir-
ginia 70 (W. Hening ed. 1823).

Whether moved by this experience or merely worried that
more  States  might  join  the  bandwagon,  the  Framers 
equipped Congress with considerable power to regulate in-
terstate  commerce  and  preempt  contrary  state  laws.    See 
U. S. Const., Art. I, §8, cl. 3; Art. IV, §2; see also Regan, 84 
Mich. L. Rev., at 1114, n. 55; A. Abel, The Commerce Clause 
in  the  Constitutional  Convention  and  in  Contemporary
Comment,  25  Minn.  L. Rev.  432,  448–449  (1941).    In  the 
years since, this Court has inferred an additional judicially 
enforceable rule against certain, especially discriminatory,
state  laws  adopted  even  against  the  backdrop  of  congres-
sional silence.  But “ ‘extreme caution’ ” is warranted before 
a court deploys this implied authority.  Tracy, 519 U. S., at 
310  (quoting  Northwest  Airlines,  Inc.  v.  Minnesota,  322 
U. S.  292,  302  (1944)  (Black,  J.,  concurring)).   Preventing
state officials from enforcing a democratically adopted state 
law in the name of the dormant Commerce Clause is a mat-
ter of “extreme delicacy,” something courts should do only 
“where the infraction is clear.”  Conway v. Taylor’s Execu-
tor, 1 Black 603, 634 (1862). 

Petitioners would have us cast aside caution for boldness. 
They have failed—repeatedly—to persuade Congress to use 
its express Commerce Clause authority to adopt a uniform
rule for pork production.  And they disavow any reliance on