Opinion ID: 548444
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Uniformity and consistency.

Text: 25 Plus argues that shared ATM networks, as interdependent economic entities, are the kind of activity that the Supreme Court has recognized are not suited to diverse regulation by the states. Under the Supreme Court's most recent instruction, 26 the practical effect of the statute must be evaluated not only by considering the consequences of the statute itself, but also by considering how the challenged statute may interact with the legitimate regulatory regimes of other States and what effect would arise if not one, but many or every State adopted similar legislation. Generally speaking, the Commerce Clause protects against inconsistent legislation arising from the projection of one state regulatory regime into the jurisdiction of another State. 27 Healy, 109 S.Ct. at 2499. 28 The cases Plus cites as examples of courts finding uniformity necessary fall within either the sports or transportation categories. The transportation cases are distinguishable from the one before us. State transportation laws pose different obstacles to entities engaged in interstate commerce than does SB 404. In Southern Pacific Co. v. Arizona ex rel. Sullivan, 325 U.S. 761, 775, 65 S.Ct. 1515, 1523, 89 L.Ed. 1915 (1945), inconsistent state laws often required railroad companies to change a train's length when it crossed a state border or else to run shorter trains. The same was true of trucks in Raymond Motor Transp. Co. v. Rice, 434 U.S. 429, 98 S.Ct. 787, 54 L.Ed.2d 664 (1978). In Bibb v. Navajo Freight Lines, Inc., 359 U.S. 520, 79 S.Ct. 962, 3 L.Ed.2d 1003 (1959), different states required or prohibited different kinds of mudguards, requiring truckers to change when crossing borders. 29 A state law permitting its banks to charge an ATM transaction fee does not pose the same kind of barrier to the ATM network. Only the amount requested from the issuing bank changes. The network does not have to retool machines; the transaction takes no more time; there is little if any additional paperwork. Although the law prevents a network from enforcing its rule, the commerce clause does not exist to protect a business's right to do business according to whatever rules it wants. Plus speculates that other states will pass similar but inconsistent legislation, but inconsistent state laws on transaction fees can coexist without conflict as long as each state regulates only its own banks. 11 30 The sports cases involve challenges under antitrust laws and the commerce clause to professional sports league rules. 12 Professional sports leagues have a limited number of teams, 13 with no more than a few and rarely more than two teams in any state. The challenged state legislation in each case would have had significant impact on the whole league fabric, not just on the state's one or two teams. Decisions in sports cases thus deal with the unique entity of the national professional sports league and have not been applied in other factual settings. 31 Neither is the shared ATM network factually similar to a professional sports league. Plus repeats over and over that the no-transaction-fee rule is necessary to the network's efficient operation, making uniformity of state laws necessary to its interstate commerce. The success of other networks that permit their member institutions to charge such fees demonstrates that uniformity is unnecessary to a shared ATM network's survival. Plus's argument is more a jealous defense of its own particular rules and its own concept of how it wants to do business than a serious attack on SB 404's chilling effect on interstate commerce. The commerce clause does not prevent states from taking action that may be inconsistent with Plus's concept of business efficiency; the Constitution does not protect any particular economic structure or approach. Exxon Corp. v. Governor of Md., 437 U.S. 117, 127, 98 S.Ct. 2207, 2214-15, 57 L.Ed.2d 91 (1978) (commerce clause does not protect the particular structure or methods of operation in a retail market). In particular, the commerce clause does not give an interstate business the right to conduct its business in what it considers the most efficient manner; the Constitution protects the interstate market, not particular interstate firms. Id. at 127-28, 98 S.Ct. at 2214-15. 32