In the case of United Haulers Assn. v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority, the plaintiff sued the New York counties of Oneida and Herkimer under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. United Haulers Association is a non-profit corporation made up of companies dealing with solid waste management. The association claimed that county ordinances that regulated the collection, processing, transfer, and disposal of solid waste were in violation of the interstate Commerce Clause. Under regulations of flow control, the solid waste and recyclables are required to be delivered to waste processing facilities that are owned by the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority, which is a municipal corporation. This was a requirement of all the waste that was generated in the counties of both Oneida and Herkimer. The Association made the argument that the ordinances pose a problem to commerce between states by requiring the delivery of garbage to a facility within the state. The restriction placed by the ordinances prevents outside counties to use waste facilities and lessens trade between states in both waste and waste disposal services.
The district court ruled in favor of the counties, and the ruling was then affirmed by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. The court refused to find that the flow control ordinances of the counties place a restriction on commerce between states by keeping the generated waste in the counties from exportation so it can ultimately be processed. They ruled that these flow control ordinances made no distinction between intra- and interstate waste management policies and thus did not discriminate against interstate commerce.
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