Opinion ID: 4023583
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Anti-Commandeering Jurisprudence

Text: As we noted in Christie I, the Supreme Court’s anticommandeering principle rests on the conclusion that “Congress ‘lacks the power directly to compel the States to require or prohibit’ acts which Congress itself may require or prohibit.” Christie I, 730 F.3d at 227 (quoting New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144, 166 (1992)). In our prior survey of the anti-commandeering case law in Christie I, we grouped four commandeering cases upholding the federal laws at issue into two categories: (1) permissible regulation in a preemptible field, Hodel v. Virginia Surface Min. & Reclamation Ass’n, Inc., 452 U.S. 264 (1981), and F.E.R.C. v. Mississippi, 456 U.S. 742 (1982); and (2) prohibitions on state action, 23 South Carolina v. Baker, 485 U.S. 505 (1988) and Reno v. Condon, 528 U.S. 141 (2000). The Supreme Court has struck down federal laws on anti-commandeering grounds in only two cases, New York v. United States and Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997). We summarize our prior review below. First, congressional action in passing laws in otherwise pre-emptible fields has withstood attack in cases where the states were not compelled to enact laws or implement federal statutes or regulatory programs themselves. In Hodel, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a law that imposed federal standards for coal mining. The law left states a choice. A state could “assume permanent regulatory authority over . . . surface coal mining operations” and “submit a proposed permanent program” that “demonstrate[s] that the state legislature has enacted laws implementing the environmental protection standards . . . and that the State has the administrative and technical ability to enforce the[] standards.” Hodel, 452 U.S. at 271. However, if a state chose not to assume regulatory authority, the federal government would “administer[] the Act within that State and continue[] as such unless and until a ‘state program’ [wa]s approved.” Id. at 272. As we described in Christie I: The Supreme Court upheld the provisions, noting that they neither compelled the states to adopt the federal standards, nor required them “to expend any state funds,” nor coerced them into “participat[ing] in the federal regulatory program in any manner whatsoever.” [Hodel, 452 U.S.] at 288. The Court further concluded 24 that Congress could have chosen to completely preempt the field by simply assuming oversight of the regulations itself. Id. It thus held that the Tenth Amendment posed no obstacle to a system by which Congress “chose to allow the States a regulatory role.” Id. at 290. As the Court later characterized Hodel, the scheme there did not violate the anti-commandeering principle because it “merely made compliance with federal standards a precondition to continued state regulation in an otherwise pre- empted field.” Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898, 926 (1997). Christie I, 730 F.3d at 227–28. The Supreme Court’s opinion in F.E.R.C. v. Mississippi the following year confirmed its view that a law does not unconstitutionally commandeer the states when the law does not impose federal requirements on the states, but leaves states the choice to decline to implement federal standards. 456 U.S. 742, 767–68 (upholding a provision that required state utility companies to expend state resources to “consider” enacting federal standards, but did not require states to enact those standards). Second, the Supreme Court has found Congress’s prohibition of certain state actions to not constitute unconstitutional commandeering. In South Carolina v. Baker, the Court upheld federal laws that prohibited the issuance of bearer bonds, which required states to amend legislation to be in compliance. 485 U.S. at 511, 514 (1988). As we characterized this case in Christie I: 25 The Court concluded this result did not run afoul [of] the Tenth Amendment because it did not seek to control or influence the manner in which States regulate private parties but was simply an inevitable consequence of regulating a state activity. In subsequent cases, the Court explained that the regulation in Baker was permissible because it simply subjected a State to the same legislation applicable to private parties. Christie I, 730 F.3d at 228 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). Later, in Reno v. Condon, the Court upheld the constitutionality of a law that prohibited states from releasing information gathered by state departments of motor vehicles. The Court ultimately concluded that the law at issue “d[id] not require the States in their sovereign capacity to regulate their own citizens[,] . . . d[id] not require the [State] Legislature[s] to enact any laws or regulations, and it d[id] not require state officials to assist in the enforcement of federal statutes regulating private individuals.” Reno, 528 U.S. at 151 (as altered in Christie I, 730 F.3d at 228). As noted above, the Supreme Court has invalidated laws on anti-commandeering grounds on only two occasions. In New York, the Supreme Court struck down a “take-title” provision whereby states were required to take title to radioactive waste by a specific date, at the waste generator’s request, if they did not adopt a federal program. As we stated in Christie I, the provision “compel[led] the states to either enact a regulatory program, or expend resources in taking title to the waste.” Christie I, 730 F.3d at 229. The Supreme Court ultimately concluded in New York that the take-title 26 provision “crossed the line distinguishing encouragement from coercion.” 505 U.S. at 175. Similarly in Printz v. United States, the Supreme Court concluded that Congress “may neither issue directives requiring the States to address particular problems, nor command the States’ officers . . . to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program.” 521 U.S. at 935 (finding a federal law requiring state officers to conduct background checks on prospective gun owners to commandeer the states in violation of the Tenth Amendment).