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Page Number: 28.0

22 

NATIONAL PORK PRODUCERS COUNCIL v. ROSS 

Opinion of the Court 
Opinion of GORSUCH, J. 

Clause. 

This Court found the allegations in Exxon’s complaint in-
sufficient as a matter of law to demonstrate a substantial 
burden on interstate commerce.  Without question, Mary-
land’s law favored one business structure (independent gas 
station  retailers)  over  another  (vertically  integrated  pro-
duction and retail firms).  Ibid.  The law also promised to
increase retail gas prices for Maryland consumers, allowing
some to question its “wisdom.”  Id., at 124, 128.  But, the 
Court found, Exxon failed to plead facts leading, “either log-
ically or as a practical matter, to [the] conclusion that the 
State  [was]  discriminating  against  interstate  commerce.” 
Id., at 125.  The company failed to do so because, on its face,
Maryland’s  law  welcomed  competition  from  interstate  re-
tail gas station chains that did not produce petroleum.  Id., 
at 125–126.  And as far as anyone could tell, the law’s “prac-
tical  effect”  wasn’t  to  protect  in-state  producers;  it  was to 
shift market share from one set of out-of-state firms (verti-
cally  integrated  businesses)  to  another  (retail  gas  station
firms).  Id., at 125, 127.  This Court squarely rejected the 
view  that  this  predicted  “ ‘change  [in]  the  market  struc-
ture’ ”  would  “impermissibly  burde[n]  interstate  com-
merce.”  Id., at 127.  If the dormant Commerce Clause pro-
tects  the  “interstate  market . . .  from  prohibitive  or 
burdensome regulations,” the Court held, it does not protect 
“particular . . . firms” or “particular structure[s] or methods 
of operation.”  Id., at 127–128. 

If Maryland’s law did not impose a sufficient burden on
interstate commerce to warrant further scrutiny, the same 
must be said for Proposition 12.  In Exxon, vertically inte-
grated  businesses  faced  a  choice:    They  could  divest  their
production capacities or withdraw from the local retail mar-
ket.  Here,  farmers  and  vertically  integrated  processors
have at least as much choice:  They may provide all their 
pigs the space the law requires; they may segregate their 
operations  to  ensure  pork  products  entering  California