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District of Columbia v. Beretta4/21/2005
erates is "local economic protectionism, laws that would excite those jealousies and retaliatory measures the Constitution was designed to prevent." C & A Carbone, Inc. v. Town of Clarkstown, New York, 511 U.S. 383, 390 (1994). No serious argument is made that the SLA exhibits economic protectionism. Because there are no legal manufacturers, distributors, or sellers of assault weapons and machine guns in the District of Columbia, the SLA does not discriminate in favor of in-state business or economic interests against their out-of-state counterparts. See Exxon Corp. v. Governor of Maryland, 437 U.S. 117, 125 (1978) (" ince there are no local producers or refiners, such claims of disparate treatment between interstate and local commerce would be meritless."). And, contrary to what the defendants do argue, the SLA does not "directly regulate . . . interstate commerce." Brown-Forman Distillers Corp., 476 U.S. at 579. It does not regulate in any direct sense, but instead imposes liability in tort for harm caused by an abnormally dangerous subset of firearms; and it limits that right of action to injuries incurred in the District of Columbia. It may have effects outside of the District if manufacturers alter their business practices to avoid that liability, but " egislation . . . may affect commerce and persons engaged in it without constituting a regulation of it, within the meaning of the Constitution." Head, 374 U.S. at 428 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). See Sherlock v. Alling, 93 U.S. 99, 103 (1876) (state statute "declar a general principle respecting the liability of all persons within the jurisdiction of the State for torts resultin in the death of parties injured" does not offend the dormant Commerce Clause); Stone v. Frontier Airlines, Inc., 256 F. Supp. 2d 28, 46 (D. Mass. 2002) (rejecting argument that "the dormant Commerce Clause precludes state tort law from regulating any activity that, while having local effects, also effectuates some external consequences").
The defendants rely primarily on Brown-Forman, supra, and Healy v. The Beer Institute, 491 U.S. 324 (1989), both of which struck down state price control or "price affirmation" statutes that had "the undeniable effect of controlling commercial activity occurring wholly outside the boundary of the State" that enacted them. Id. at 337. But in contrast to these statutes, the Strict Liability Act "does not regulate the price of any out-of-state transaction, either by its express terms or by its inevitable effect." Pharmaceutical Research & Mfrs. of Am. v. Walsh, 538 U.S. 644, 669 (2003) (emphasis added; internal quotation marks omitted). That the risk it creates of damage awards in the District may conceivably affect the defendants' pricing or insurance decisions related to a limited class of the products they manufacture is not the "direct control[ of] commerce," Healy, 491 U.S. at 336, that the Commerce Clause forbids without more.
The validity of the SLA thus depends on whether it "imposes a burden on interstate commerce that is 'clearly excessive in relation to the putative local benefits.'" C & A Carbone, Inc., 511 U.S. at 390 (quoting Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U.S. 137, 142 (1970)). State regulation on subjects "relating to the health, life, and safety of . . . citizens," Head, 374 U.S. at 428, receives special deference in that analysis. See Smith v. District of Columbia, 436 A.2d 53, 58 (D.C. 1981); Electrolert Corp. v. Barry, 237 U.S. App. D.C. 328, 331, 737 F.2d 110, 113 (1984). The "benefits" of the SLA to the District of Columbia are reflected in the legislative findings that accompanied its passage. The D.C. Council found (a) that "the increase in homicides in the District has been accomp
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