# Dormant Commerce Clause **Status: stub — expand.** The negative implication of the [[Commerce Clause]]: because Congress holds the interstate commerce power, states may not discriminate against or unduly burden interstate commerce even where Congress has said nothing. Two tiers. Laws that **discriminate** against out-of-state commerce face near-fatal scrutiny. Laws that are **evenhanded** but incidentally burden commerce are judged under *Pike v. Bruce Church* (1970) balancing. Congress can authorize what the doctrine would otherwise forbid, and states acting as **market participants** rather than regulators are exempt. *National Pork Producers Council v. Ross* (2023) declined to adopt an "extraterritoriality" principle that would bar a state from setting standards with out-of-state effects, upholding California's Proposition 12 — a significant narrowing. Live in 2025–26: the December 2025 executive order directing a DOJ AI Litigation Task Force names undue burden on interstate commerce as a theory for challenging state AI statutes. ## See also - [[Commerce Clause]] · [[Federal Preemption]] · [[Federalism Powers Crosswalk]]