Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/614

 502US2$28D 02-10-99 15:12:54 PAGES OPINPGT

456

WYOMING v. OKLAHOMA Opinion of the Court

ports, Ltd. v. Dias, supra, at 268–269; Maryland v. Louisiana, 451 U. S., at 760; Lewis v. BT Investment Managers, Inc., 447 U. S. 27, 39–42 (1980). As we have only recently reaffirmed: “Our cases. . . indicate that where discrimination is patent, as it is here, neither a widespread advantage to in-state interests nor a widespread disadvantage to out-of-state competitors need be shown. . . . Varying the strength of the bar against economic protectionism according to the size and number of in-state and out-ofstate firms affected would serve no purpose except the creation of new uncertainties in an already complex field.” New Energy Co., supra, at 276–277. Because the Act discriminates both on its face and in practical effect, the burden falls on Oklahoma “ ‘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 interests at stake.’ ” Hughes v. Oklahoma, supra, at 336 (quoting Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Comm’n, 432 U. S., at 353). “At a minimum such facial discrimination invokes the strictest scrutiny of any purported legitimate local purpose and of the absence of nondiscriminatory alternatives.” Hughes v. Oklahoma, supra, at 337. We agree with the Special Master’s recommended conclusions that Oklahoma has not met its burden in this respect. In this Court, Oklahoma argues quite briefly that the Act’s discrimination against out-of-state coal is justified because sustaining the Oklahoma coal-mining industry lessens the State’s reliance on a single source of coal delivered over a single rail line. This justification, as the Special Master noted, is foreclosed by the Court’s reasoning in Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig, Inc., 294 U. S. 511 (1935), and H. P. Hood & Sons, Inc. v. Du Mond, supra, cases that the State’s brief ignores. We have often examined a “presumably legitimate goal,” only to find that the State at-