P.M. BRIEFING : Indiana Trash Law Ruled Down

INDIANAPOLIS — A federal judge today ruled that provisions of Indiana’s new law regulating out-of-state trash are unconstitutional, saying the flow of rubbish into the state is all part of commerce.

U.S. District Judge John D. Tinder concluded that the law’s three key provisions violate the Constitution’s commerce clause that allows free trade among the states.

“However noble and popular these three provisions of House Enrolled Act 1240 appear to be, they must give way to the constitutional principles,” Tinder wrote. The same protection that the commerce clause gives to the citizens of other states who feel the need to (export) waste into Indiana protects Indiana citizens when they export hazardous waste to other states. “Commerce, even in such ‘bads’ as waste, is a two-way street,” he wrote.