United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 03-2542
WALGREEN CO., WALGREEN OF SAN PATRICIO, AND
WALGREEN OF PUERTO RICO,
Plaintiffs, Appellants,
v.
JOHN V. RULLAN,
SECRETARY OF THE PUERTO RICO HEALTH DEPARTMENT,
Defendant, Appellee.
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO
[Hon. Héctor M. Laffitte, U.S. District Judge]
Before
Boudin, Chief Judge,
Lipez and Howard, Circuit Judges.
Henry C. Dinger, P.C., with whom Stephen D. Poss, P.C. and
Goodwin Procter, LLP were on brief, for appellants.
Camelia Fernández-Romeu, with whom Roberto J. Sánchez-Ramos,
Puerto Rico Department of Justice, Office of the Solicitor General,
was on brief, for appellee.
April 22, 2005
HOWARD, Circuit Judge. Walgreen Co., Walgreen of San
Patricio, and Walgreen of Puerto Rico (collectively, Walgreen) sued
John V. Rullan, the Secretary of the Puerto Rico Health Department
(Secretary), under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, challenging the
constitutionality of a Commonwealth of Puerto Rico statute
requiring that all pharmacies seeking to open or relocate within
the Commonwealth obtain a "certificate of necessity and
convenience." 24 L.P.R.A. § 334 et. seq. Walgreen asserts that
this statute is unconstitutional because it impermissibly
discriminates against or excessively burdens interstate commerce
and violates due process. The district court rejected these
arguments. Because we conclude that the statute impermissibly
discriminates against interstate commerce, we reverse.
I. Background
In 1974, Congress passed the National Health Planning and
Resources Development Act. See Pub. L. No. 93-641, 88 Stat. 2225
(1975). This statute was designed to correct perceived
imperfections in the health care market. Among its goals, the
statute was intended to restrict skyrocketing health care costs
and prevent the unnecessary duplication of services. See Patrick
John McGinley, Beyond Health Care Reform: Reconsidering Certificate
of Need Laws in a Managed Competition System, 23 Fla. St. U. L.
Rev. 141, 154-55 (1995).
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To achieve these goals, Congress, inter alia, conditioned
the states' receipt of certain federal funds on the enactment of
"certificate of need programs." Under these programs, the states
reviewed proposed health care facility construction projects and
permitted projects to proceed only after a demonstration of
sufficient need for the services.1 See generally Lauretta H.
Wolfson, State Regulation of Health Facility Planning: The Economic
Theory and Political Realities of Certificates of Need, 4 DePaul J.
Health Care L. 261 (2001).
In 1975, Puerto Rico (which is treated as a state for
present purposes) responded to the federal initiative by enacting
a "certificate of need" law. 24 L.P.R.A. §§ 334 et seq. (the Act).
The Act provided that no person may "acquire or construct a health
facility . . . without having first obtained a certificate of
necessity and convenience granted by the Secretary." Id. § 334a.
The Act defined a certificate of necessity and convenience as a
document issued by the Secretary of Health
authorizing a person to carry out any of the
activities covered by [the Act], certifying
that the same is necessary for the population
it is to serve and that it will not unduly
affect the existing services, thus
contributing to the orderly and adequate
1
One of the purposes of encouraging states to enact
certificate of need programs was to limit the excessive
construction of health care facilities by physician-owned
investments. Because physicians could prescribe the use of these
newly-constructed facilities, Congress postulated that doctors were
ordering unnecessary, expensive procedures to create artificial
demand for their investments. See McGinley, supra at 154-55.
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development of health services in Puerto
Rico.
Id. at § 334(e). The Act identified "health facilities" required
to obtain a certificate, id. § 334(d), provided criteria for
granting a certificate, id. § 334b, permitted the Secretary to
promulgate additional certificate criteria, id. §334j, and
established administrative and judicial review procedures governing
the certificate review process, id. §§ 334f-2 to 334f-14.
As originally enacted in 1975, the Act did not apply to
pharmacies. Four years later, the Puerto Rico legislature amended
the definition of "health care facilities" to include pharmacies.
See Law No. 189 of July 29, 1979, amending 24 L.P.R.A. §§ 334 et
seq. This amendment, inter alia, provided that any pharmacy in
existence on October 24, 1979 was exempt from the certificate
requirement. See 24 L.P.R.A. § 334g. When the amendment was
enacted, over ninety-two percent of pharmacies operating in Puerto
Rico were locally-owned concerns. There is no legislative history
surrounding the enactment of the amendment, but the Secretary
asserts that the purpose of the amendment was to encourage the
location of pharmacies in underserved areas of Puerto Rico. Puerto
Rico is the only jurisdiction that has applied its certificate of
need law to pharmacies.
Twelve years after its enactment, Congress repealed the
National Health Planning and Resources Development Act. Pub. L.
No. 99-60, 100 Stat. 3743 (1986). While several states followed
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suit by repealing their certificate of need laws, Puerto Rico's
remains in effect.
As mentioned above, the Act provides detailed procedures
for the certificate approval process. The process begins with a
proposed pharmacy submitting a letter advising the Health
Department of its intention to file a certificate request. Within
thirty days of sending this letter, the proposed pharmacy must file
the formal certificate application. See 24 L.P.R.A. § 334f-3.
After the Secretary receives the application, he
publishes a notice in a widely read newspaper announcing the
request. See id. § 334f-6. He also notifies all "affected
persons" by mail. See Regulation of the Secretary of Health No.
56, art. IV § 2(b) (1980) ("Regulation No. 56"). Among the
"affected persons" are existing pharmacies located within one mile
of the proposed pharmacy site. These entities then have the right
to oppose the granting of a certificate to the proposed pharmacy
provided that they give written notice of their opposition to the
Secretary and proposed pharmacy within 15 days. Id.
Once the notification process is complete, the Secretary
almost always issues the certificate if no one objects. See infra
at n.3. But if there is opposition from an "affected person,"
which the Secretary acknowledges is, without exception, an existing
pharmacy located within one mile of the proposed pharmacy site, the
Secretary assigns the case to the Health Department's Hearings
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Division for an administrative hearing. The hearing is often
delayed to permit the parties time for discovery. At the hearing,
the parties present, inter alia, expert testimony concerning the
expected impact that the proposed pharmacy will have on competition
in the local area. At the conclusion of the hearing, the parties
submit proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. The
hearing officer then forwards a recommendation to the Secretary for
final action.
In making his final determination, the Secretary considers
various statutory criteria, including:
(1) the relationship between the
transaction for which the certificate is
requested, and the long-term service
development plan, if any, of the
petitioner;
(2) the present and projected need of the
population which will be affected by the
proposed transaction of the services to be
provided thereby;
(3) the existence of alternatives to the
transaction for which the certificate is
requested, or the possibility of providing
the proposed services in a more efficient
or less costly manner than that proposed
by the petitioner; and
(4) the relationship between the health
system operating in the area and the
proposed transaction.
24 L.P.R.A. § 334b. In addition, the Secretary considers other
criteria, established by regulation, including whether the proposed
pharmacy will benefit certain "unattended populations" (e.g., low-
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income, disabled, or elderly populations) and whether the proposed
pharmacy will be located in an area that is already "saturated" by
existing pharmacies. Regulation No. 56, art. V. § 1(f) & art. VI
§ 13(2).
After the Secretary rules on the certificate request, the
losing party may ask for reconsideration. See 24 L.P.R.A. § 334f-
10. The losing party may also seek judicial review in the Puerto
Rico Circuit Court of Appeals and eventually in the Puerto Rico
Supreme Court. See id. Typically, the judicial review process
takes in excess of a year to conclude, and the Secretary's decision
is often stayed during this period. Thus, even if the certificate
is ultimately granted, the entire administrative and judicial
process usually takes several years to complete.
II. The District Court Opinion
In the district court, Walgreen claimed that the Act, as
applied to retail pharmacies, is invalid because it discriminates
against or excessively burdens interstate commerce. After filing
cross motions for summary judgment, the parties agreed to try the
case on affidavits, depositions, and exhibits.2 In a published
2
The parties state that, by asking the court to decide the
case on the paper record, they "waived" trial. This is an
inaccurate description of the procedure. By submitting the paper
record and asking the court to make findings of fact and
conclusions of law based on these materials, the parties consented
to a trial on a stipulated record. See, e.g., AIDS Action Comm. v.
MBTA, 42 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir. 1994).
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opinion, the district court rejected Walgreen's claims. See
Walgreen Co. v. Rullan, 292 F. Supp. 2d 298 (D.P.R. 2003).
The district court rejected Walgreen's discrimination
argument because the Act requires "any local economic interest
seeking to obtain a [certificate to] jump through the same
bureaucratic hoops" as an out-of-Commonwealth entity and thus treats
all "newcomers" evenhandedly. Id. at 313. The court also declined
to find discrimination, even though all existing pharmacies were
exempt when the Act was amended to include pharmacies, because "the
statute made no distinction between local and national pharmacies."
Id. at 315. After concluding that the Act was non-discriminatory,
the court determined that the Act did not excessively burden
commerce. See id. at 316-17. The court ruled that the Act imposes
minimal burdens on interstate commerce because it does not prohibit
out-of-Commonwealth pharmacies from entering the Puerto Rico market.
See id. The court also recognized the Act's legitimate purpose of
encouraging pharmacies to locate in underserved areas of Puerto
Rico, though recognizing that Walgreen presented a "solid case" that
the Act was not helping the Commonwealth achieve this goal. Id. at
310, 317-18. Thus, the court held that "[g]iven the Act's modest
burden on interstate commerce," the "burden is clearly [not]
excessive in relation to its putative local benefits." Id. at 318
(emphasis in original).
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III. Discussion
On appeal, Walgreen renews its arguments challenging the
constitutionality of the Act as applied to retail pharmacies.
Because Walgreen appeals the district court's decision following a
bench trial, we review factual findings for clear error and
conclusions of law de novo. See Keyes v. Sec'y of the Navy, 853
F.2d 1016, 1020 (1st Cir. 1988).
The Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate
interstate commerce. See U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 3. While the
Commerce Clause's text provides only an affirmative grant of power,
for over 150 years, the Clause has been interpreted to contain a
negative aspect known as the dormant Commerce Clause. See Laurence
H. Tribe, 1 American Constitutional Law 1030 (3d ed. 2000) (citing
Cooley v. Bd. of Wardens, 53 U.S. 299, 317-20 (1852)). The dormant
Commerce Clause doctrine, which applies to Puerto Rico on the same
terms as it applies to the states, see United Egg Producers v. Dep't
of Agric. of P.R., 77 F.3d 567, 569 (1st Cir. 1996), limits the
power of states "to erect barriers against interstate trade," Lewis
v. BT Investment Managers, Inc., 447 U.S. 27, 35 (1980); see also
Doran v. Mass. Turnpike Auth., 348 F.3d 315, 318 (1st Cir. 2003).
Under the dormant Commerce Clause, if a state law has
either the purpose or effect of significantly favoring in-state
commercial interests over out-of-state interests, the law will
"routinely" be invalidated "unless the discrimination is
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demonstrably justified by a valid factor unrelated to economic
protectionism." Houlton Citizens' Coalition v. Town of Houlton, 175
F.3d 178, 184 (1st Cir. 1999) (quoting West Lynn Creamery, Inc. v.
Healy, 512 U.S. 189, 192-93 (1994)). If the state law regulates in-
state and out-of-state interests evenhandedly, the statute will be
upheld "unless the burden imposed on [interstate] commerce is
clearly excessive in relation to the putative local benefits." Pike
v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U.S. 137, 142 (1970).
While these rules are easy to recite, their application
to a particular factual setting is often difficult. Recognizing
this difficulty, the Supreme Court has cautioned that the dormant
Commerce Clause inquiry should be undertaken by "eschew[ing]
formalism for a sensitive, case-by-case analysis of purposes and
effects." West Lynn Creamery, 512 U.S. at 201. With these
principles in mind, we consider whether Puerto Rico's certificate
of need law, as applied to retail pharmacies, discriminates against
interstate commerce.
On its face, the Act applies neutrally. All commercial
interests wishing to open or relocate a pharmacy in Puerto Rico must
obtain the same certificate no matter their place of origin. But
viewed more critically and in light of the Secretary's enforcement
of the Act, the Act discriminates against interstate commerce by
permitting the Secretary to block a new pharmacy from locating in
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its desired location simply because of the adverse competitive
effects that the new pharmacy will have on existing pharmacies.
As set forth above, when the Puerto Rico legislature
amended the Act in 1979 to include pharmacies as covered "health
care facilities," it exempted all existing pharmacies from the
certificate requirement. 24 L.P.R.A. § 334g. Of the pharmacies
operating in Puerto Rico at this time, ninety-two percent were
locally owned. Thus, the Act, as amended, excused an almost
entirely local class of pharmacies from the certificate requirement.
Cf. Pac. Northwest Venison Producers v. Smitch, 20 F.3d 1008, 1013
(9th Cir. 1994) (recognizing that "grandfather clause" exempting in-
state interests can indicate discriminatory nature of statute)
(citing Raymond Motor Transp., Inc. v. Rice, 434 U.S. 429, 447
(1978)).
What's more (again as set forth above) this group of
existing pharmacies not only was excused from the certificate
requirement but also has been permitted to wield substantial
influence in the enforcement of the certificate requirement against
proposed new pharmacies. The Secretary acknowledges that, unless
an existing pharmacy objects to a certificate request, he almost
invariably issues the certificate. Yet when there is an objection,
he begins the costly and time-consuming administrative and judicial
procedures established by the Act and frequently declines to issue
requested certificates at the conclusion of the process.
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Thus, in practice, the Act permits an existing pharmacy
to object simply because it fears additional competition. And this
practice is not only within the letter of the Act, it is within its
spirit as well. The Act provides that the Secretary may deny a
certificate if a new pharmacy will "unduly affect existing
services." 24 L.P.R.A. § 334(e). Moreover, the regulations
enforcing the Act direct the Secretary to reject a new pharmacy's
request if the proposed location is already "saturated" with
existing pharmacies. Regulation No. 56, art. VI § 13(2). The law
is thus protectionist both de jure and de facto.
This protectionist regime has had discriminatory effects.
While the Secretary has rejected virtually no unopposed
applications,3 twenty-three percent of opposed applications have
been denied. The negative effects on out-of-Commonwealth applicants
have been particularly pronounced. Over fifty percent of out-of-
Commonwealth entities have been forced to undergo the entire
administrative process compared to less than twenty-five percent of
local applicants. Moreover, of those applicants forced to endure
the hearing process, the Secretary has granted certificates to
ninety percent of the local applicants but only to fifty-eight
percent of out-of-Commonwealth applicants. In 1979, ninety-two
percent of pharmacies were under local ownership, and in 2001,
3
Out of the 337 unopposed applications, only one has been
rejected.
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ninety-four percent of pharmacies were locally owned. The
statistical evidence thus strongly indicates that the Act, as
applied by the Secretary, has limited competition in favor of the
predominantly local group of existing pharmacies.
The Supreme Court has invalidated, on dormant Commerce
Clause grounds, regulatory schemes that permit a state to deny an
operating license on the basis that the opening of a new facility
in a particular location will cause undue competition for existing
facilities.4 See H.P. Hood & Sons, Inc. v. DuMond, 336 U.S. 525,
545 (1948) (invalidating state agency's refusal to grant a license
for a milk producer to operate in a desired locality because the
relevant market was "already adequately served"); Buck v.
Kuykendall, 267 U.S. 307, 314-16 (1925) (invalidating a rule that
a state could deny an interstate transporter a certificate of
necessity and convenience to use state roads because the "area is
already being adequately served"); George W. Bush & Sons Co. v.
Malloy, 267 U.S. 317, 318 (1925) (similar); see also Medigen of Ky.
4
This is not to say that there are no instances in which a
state could justify a certificate of need law that restricts
competition, see, e.g., Panhandle E. Pipe Line Co. v. Mich. Pub.
Serv. Comm'n, 341 U.S. 329, 333-34 (1951); Am. Motor Sales Corp. v.
Div. of Motor Vehicles, 592 F.2d 219, 222-23 (4th Cir. 1979);
however, certificate of need laws which deter competition simply to
benefit those entities already operating within a state are not
legitimate exercises of state power, see Philadelphia v. New
Jersey, 437 U.S. 617, 624 (1978) (stating that laws which have a
disproportionately negative impact on out-of-state businesses and
serve only to promote "economic protectionism" are "per se"
invalid).
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v. Pub. Serv. Comm'n of W. Va., 787 F. Supp. 590, 598 (S.D. W. Va.
1991) (collecting cases invalidating various certificate of
convenience and necessity schemes because they discriminate against
interstate commerce), aff'd 985 F.2d 164 (4th Cir. 1993). A court
has also struck down, on dormant Commerce Clause grounds, a law
which gave in-state interests the ability to manipulate a facially
neutral regulatory scheme to establish advantages over out-of-state
interests. See McNeilus Truck & Mfg. v. Ohio, 226 F.3d 429, 442-43
(6th Cir. 2000) (holding that facially neutral scheme which gave
established local interests the ability to block licensing of out-
of-state entities by refusing to contract with them had the effect
of discriminating against interstate commerce).
The Act, insofar as it applies to pharmacies, suffers from
both of these infirmities. It permits the Secretary to deny a
proposed pharmacy market access at its desired location simply to
limit competition. Further, the Secretary invokes this authority
only upon the urging of a member of the largely local group of
existing pharmacies, thereby permitting a predominantly local group
to manipulate the regulatory scheme for its own advantage. For
these reasons, the Act discriminates against commerce by permitting
established pharmacies "to retard, burden or constrict the flow of
. . . commerce for their own economic advantage." See Hood, 336
U.S. at 665.
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The Secretary advances several arguments defending the
Act. First, he claims that the Act does not burden commerce
sufficiently to trigger the dormant Commerce Clause doctrine because
it does not bar any out-of-Commonwealth pharmacy from operating in
Puerto Rico. He contends that the Act is permissible because every
pharmacy can open somewhere on the island.
This argument takes too narrow a view of the kind of
restrictions that affect the flow of commerce. Laws may implicate
the Commerce Clause if they ban a business from establishing
operations in only one part of a state, even though the rest of the
state remains open. See Dean Milk Co. v. Madison, 340 U.S. 349,
354-56 (1951) (holding invalid an ordinance which bars certain milk
producers from selling milk within city limits); accord Fort Gratiot
Sanitary Landfill, Inc. v. Mich. Dep't of Natural Resources, 504
U.S. 353, 361 (1993) ("[O]ur prior cases teach that a State may not
avoid the strictures of the Commerce Clause by curtailing the
movement of articles of commerce through subdivisions of the State,
rather than through the State itself."). By permitting the
Secretary to bar the opening of a new pharmacy in its desired
location because of the competitive effects on existing pharmacies,
the Act limits the parts of Puerto Rico which are open to new retail
pharmacies. This burden on commerce is sufficient to trigger the
Commerce Clause scrutiny.5
5
That the Act regulates the ownership of local businesses
rather than the flow of goods into the Commonwealth does not affect
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Contrary to the Secretary's suggestion, the Act also
cannot be defended on the ground that eats all newcomers equally
and thus does not discriminate because every pharmacy seeking to
open or relocate within Puerto Rico must obtain a certificate.
While it is true, as the Secretary states, that a statute is
consonant with the dormant Commerce Clause so long as it "leaves all
comers with equal access to the local market," see Houlton Citizens'
Coalition, 175 F.3d at 188, this principle has no application here.
In Houlton Citizens' Coalition, the plaintiff challenged
the city's award of a contract providing the exclusive right to
process the city's municipal waste. Id. at 181-82. We rejected a
dormant Commerce Clause challenge to the awarding of the contract
because "in-state and out-of-state bidders [were] allowed to compete
freely on a level playing field" as the bidding process did not
favor any particular interest. Id. at 188. But unlike the bidding
process at issue Houlton Citizens' Coalition, the Act provides
different "playing fields" for in and out-of-state interests. While
the Act treats "newcomers" equally, it gives an on-going competitive
advantage to the predominantly local group of existing pharmacies.
24 L.P.R.A. § 334g. In this crucial respect, the Act is dissimilar
to the regulatory conduct challenged in Houlton Citizens' Coalition,
this conclusion. See Lewis, 447 U.S. at 38-39; see also Yamaha v.
Jim's Motorcycle, Inc., --F.3d--, 2005 WL 628111 (4th Cir. Mar.
28, 2005) (invalidating, on dormant Commerce Clause grounds, state
law which regulated the ownership of local motorcycle franchises to
prevent excessive competition with existing franchises).
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and is akin to laws which courts have invalidated because they
discriminate against out-of-state entities and some in-state
entities in order to favor a subset of in-state interests. See C&A
Carbone, Inc. v. Clarkstown, 511 U.S. 383, 391 (1994) ("The
ordinance is no less discriminatory because in-state or in-town
processors are also covered by the prohibition."); Dean Milk Co.,
340 U.S. at 354 n.4 (holding that it is "immaterial that Wisconsin
milk from outside the Madison area is subjected to the same
proscription as that moving in interstate commerce"); Cloverland-
Green Spring Dairies, Inc. v. Penn. Milk Mktg. Bd., 298 F.3d 201,
214 (3d Cir. 2002) (noting that a statute may be invalid under the
dormant Commerce Clause "if it favors only a single or finite set
of businesses") (internal citations and quotations omitted).
In a variant on the Secretary's theme that "the Act treats
all newcomers equally," the Secretary emphasizes that all
"newcomers" must file an application for a certificate, even though
only the opposed pharmacies must go through "the whole nine yards"
of the administrative process. This argument misconceives the
fundamental flaw in the Act. The Act and accompanying regulations
permit the Secretary to reject an application on the ground that a
particular area of Puerto Rico is saturated with existing
pharmacies. The result of this authority is that the Secretary
protects the mostly local group of existing pharmacies from
competitive pressure. That the Secretary subjects all newcomers
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to this discriminatory scheme does not ameliorate the constitutional
infirmity.
Our conclusion is also unaffected by the fact that a few
of the existing pharmacies when the Act was passed (and now) are
owned by out-of-Commonwealth interests. Holding otherwise would be
tantamount to saying that a favored group must be entirely in-state
for a law to have a discriminatory effect on commerce. The
Secretary cites no authority for this proposition, and our precedent
suggests otherwise.
In Nat'l Revenue Corp. v. Violet, 807 F.2d 285 (1st Cir.
1986), we considered a dormant Commerce Clause challenge to a Rhode
Island statute providing that only members of the Rhode Island bar
could engage in third-party debt collection. Rhode Island defended
the law by arguing that it applied evenhandedly because it excluded
all debt collection companies from operating within its borders.
Id. at 290. We rejected this argument because the statute
"effectively bars out-of-staters from offering a commercial service
. . . and confers the right to provide th[e] service . . . upon a
class largely composed of Rhode Island citizens" (i.e., members of
the Rhode Island bar). Id. Even though some members of the Rhode
Island bar were from outside of Rhode Island,6 we concluded that the
statute discriminated against commerce because it favored a class
6
States are not permitted to limit bar entry to their own
citizens. See Supreme Court of N.H. v. Piper, 470 U.S. 274, 283
(1985).
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comprised mostly of Rhode Island interests. See Nat'l Revenue, 807
F.2d at 290. So too here. While a few out-of-Commonwealth
pharmacies benefit from the Act, the vast majority of favored
pharmacies are local concerns.
Finally, we disagree with the Secretary's suggestion that
this case is controlled by Exxon Corp. v. Governor of Md., 437 U.S.
117 (1978). In Exxon, the Court considered the validity of a
Maryland statute prohibiting refiners of petroleum from operating
retail service stations within Maryland. Id. at 120. The Court
rejected the refiners' dormant Commerce Clause challenge because the
statute did not affect the right of only out-of-state entities to
compete in the Maryland market; rather, all independent dealers (in
and out-of-state) were permitted to compete and all refiners were
excluded. See id. at 127. As the Court explained: "While the
refiners will no longer enjoy their same status in the Maryland
market, in-state independent dealers will have no competitive
advantage over out-of-state dealers. The fact that the burden of
a state regulation falls on some interstate companies does not, by
itself, establish discrimination against interstate commerce." Id.
at 127.
This case is distinguishable because, as we have
explained, the Act favors the largely local group of established
pharmacies over similarly-situated out-of-Commonwealth pharmacies
seeking to open new stores. Unlike Exxon, where the Court expressed
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confidence that the only result of the statute would be to "cause
some business to shift from one interstate supplier to another," the
statistics in this case strongly suggest that the Act helps to
perpetuate local dominance of the Puerto Rico pharmacy market. Id.
at 128; see also supra at 12-13. The Act does not burden a
particular firm, or subgroup of firms, but rather affects every
pharmacy seeking to open in an area of Puerto Rico where an
established pharmacy already operates.
We thus find that, on balance, the Act, though facially
neutral, discriminates against interstate commerce. This
conclusion, however, does not end our inquiry. "When discrimination
against commerce . . . is demonstrated, the burden falls on the
State to justify it both in terms of the local benefits flowing from
the statute and the unavailability of nondiscriminatory alternatives
adequate to preserve the local interest at stake." Hunt v. Wash.
Apple Adver Comm'n, 432 U.S. 333, 353 (1977). The only
justification offered by the Secretary for the Act is that it "seeks
to encourage in-state and out-of-state [interests] alike to
establish pharmacies in [underserved] geographical areas."
There is no dispute that the Commonwealth has a legitimate
interest in encouraging pharmacies to locate in all parts of Puerto
Rico. But, as the parties' experts testified, the certificate
requirement cannot reasonably be thought to advance this purpose.
Pharmacies seek to operate in areas where they can turn a profit.
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The refusal to grant a proposed pharmacy market entry at its desired
location will not encourage the proposed pharmacy to relocate to an
underserved area (unless the government provides other incentives
for it to do so). Presumably areas are underserved because
pharmacies have determined that these locations are unlikely to be
profitable. For this reason, the denial of a certificate request
is likely to lead a pharmacy to seek to open in another potentially
profitable (and therefore probably already served) area or to
withdraw from the Puerto Rico market entirely. As the Fourth
Circuit explained in a similar case, "the goal of providing
universal service at reasonable rates may well be a legitimate state
purpose, but restricting market entry does not serve that purpose."
Medigen of Ky., Inc. v. Pub. Serv. Comm'n of W. Va., 985 F.2d 164,
167 (4th Cir. 1993) (invalidating, on dormant Commerce Clause
grounds, a statute requiring transporters of medical waste to obtain
a certificate of necessity and convenience and authorizing the state
agency to deny such certificates if "existing services . . . [are]
reasonably efficient and adequate").
IV. Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, 24 L.P.R.A. §§ 334 et seq., as
enforced by the Secretary of Health for the issuing of certificates
of necessity and convenience to retail pharmacies, is invalid under
the dormant Commerce Clause. Accordingly, we reverse the district
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court's judgment and remand for further proceedings consistent with
this opinion.
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