Constitutional Law, Professor Donoho

Essay Questions for Tutorials

Please write out an answer to each of the following hypotheticals (one page maximum for each) for submission on Monday, March 27, no later than 5 p.m. Both questions require some careful thought and may be discussed with your classmates but not with any current member of the United States Supreme Court. You must submit your answer via e-mail to the tutors (Nicholas Lake, Lundy McCarthy, Ethan Wall, Melissa McDavitt, Jason Haber) and me. Please identify yourself in the name of the document/answer (e.g., name the document “gilbert jones essays”).

  1. The State of Michigan has just passed a statute that bars both entry and sale of sealed strawberry crates that do not exclusively bear the quality grading marks of the “U.S.D.A.” This grading system, promulgated by the United States Department of Agriculture, allows but does not require farmers to classify strawberries and other fruit as “U.S.D.A. Grade A” through “C.” Michigan, which is a significant producer and consumer of strawberries, believes that uniform use of the U.S.D.A. grades will promote health and protect consumers from misleading assertions regarding the quality of strawberries sold in the state. Your client is the Texas State Strawberry Growers Association and its members who regularly sell their fruit to Michigan fruit canners utilizing a grading system approved by the State of Texas. The Texas grading system, which utilizes the grades “Texas Grade 1st, 2nd, 3rd Quality,” is nationally known and viewed in the fruit trade as representing products superior to the corresponding U.S.D.A. grading system. Indeed, buyers’ confidence in the Texas State grading system, developed over the last 60 years through rigorous state inspection procedures and advertising, allows Texas State growers to command top prices for their fruit.

Explain what constitutional challenges you would raise against this Michigan statute and evaluate your chance of success.

  1. Louisiana has recently enacted a statute that prohibits any person from transporting beyond state borders any shrimp taken from Louisiana waters unless their heads and tails have first been removed. Your client, an Alabama company that processes canned shrimp, would like to challenge this statute.

Please analyze the merits of their claim and Louisiana’s likely responses.