Forum
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Case Status
Decided
Docket Number
Oral Argument Date
December 07, 2017
Case Updates
Second Circuit affirms judgment against Commerce Clause challenge to Connecticut’s E-Waste Law
March 29, 2018
U.S. Chamber urges Second Circuit to invalidate Connecticut’s E-Waste Law
May 11, 2017
The U.S. Chamber filed an amicus brief urging the Second Circuit to hold that Connecticut’s E-Waste Law violates the dormant Commerce Clause.
In 2007, Connecticut enacted a law requiring manufacturers of household electronics, including televisions, to fund the recycling of those products in Connecticut. Yet, in regulating television recycling, the law apportions a manufacturer’s responsibility for the costs of recycling used televisions in Connecticut based upon the manufacturer’s share of the national market for new television sales. Thus, the more televisions a manufacturer sells outside Connecticut, the greater economic burden it incurs in Connecticut, regardless of whether it contributes in any way to the cost of recycling old televisions in Connecticut.
The Chamber’s amicus brief argues that this scheme contravenes the dormant Commerce Clause as an extraterritorial regulation and an excessive user fee. States are free to design schemes to recycle electronics in a variety of ways, but imposing an arbitrary levy on interstate commerce to support a state-sponsored recycling scheme is not one of them.
Vincent Levy, Daniel M. Sullivan, and Daniel M. Horowitz of Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP served as counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center.