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Dormant Commerce Clause

The following summaries are of recent published decisions of the California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. The summaries are presented without regard to whether Severson & Werson represented a party in the case.

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Bernstein v. Virgin America, Inc. (9th Cir. 2021)

The dormant Commerce Clause does not prohibit California from applying its labor laws to airline employees who reside or are employed predominantly in California.  The airline's block time method of computing pay was similar to the pay scheme approved in Oman v. Delta Air Lines, Inc. (2020) 9 Cal.5th 762, and so did not offend California Labor Code guarantees of… Read More

South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc.

by Jan T. Chilton |

Under the Commerce Clause, the states’ power to impose sales taxes on sellers is limited only by the requirement of a substantial nexus to the taxing state; the seller’s physical presence in the state is no longer required for the imposition of sales tax. Read More

Asante v. California Dept. of Health Care Services

by Jan T. Chilton |

The dormant Commerce clause does not apply to acts that a state takes as a participant in the market, even if such acts discriminate against interstate commerce (such as, here, regulation of the rates at which the State of California will reimburse hospitals for services rendered to Medi-Cal patients). Read More