Law for Business 10th Edition by James Barnes,Terry Dworkin,Eric Richards

Exercise 6

A Minnesota statute banned the retail sale of milk in plastic nonreturnable containers that are not biodegradable but permitted such sales in other nonreturnable containers, such as paperboard cartons. The statute stated that the purpose of the ban was to promote resource conservation, ease solid waste disposal problems, and conserve energy. The Clover Leaf Creamery Company challenged the statute on equal protection grounds. It argued that the true purpose of the statute was to promote the interests of certain segments of the local dairy and pulpwood industries at the expense of other segments of those same industries. It also argued that paperboard containers had environmental drawbacks, that they required more energy to produce than did plastic containers, and that plastic containers took up less space at landfills and presented fewer solid waste disposal problems than did paperboard containers. Did the statute violate the Equal Protection Clause?