The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in the case of Waste Management Holdings, Inc. v. Gilmore, 64 F. Supp. 2d 523 (E.D. Va. 1999) enjoined Virginia's attempt to limit out-of-state waste. This is another in what has become a fairly long line of cases to strike down such attempts as violations of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Virginia statute capped the amount of waste that any landfill could accept per day and restricted the use of barges for the transportation of solid waste on Virginia's waterways. The Court saw these as obvious reactions to plans to import waste from New York. "The timing of the General Assembly's actions and the statements made by the legislation's chief proponents, including Governor Gilmour, leave no room for doubt that it was enacted with one overriding purpose: to restrict the importations of out-of-state waste, particularly New York waste, into the Commonwealth." Concluding that plaintiffs had demonstrated that they would be irreparably harmed by the new law, and that they would "almost certainly" succeed on the merits, the court granted a preliminary injunction against the state.
Court Thwarts Another State Attempt To Restrict Waste Flow
This article was edited and reviewed by FindLaw Attorney Writers | Last reviewed March 26, 2008
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