Clean Air Act

1/6/15

Case 4.2 The Clean Air Act is a United States federal law designed to control air pollution on a national level. It is one of the United States' first and most influential modern environmental laws, and one of the most comprehensive air quality laws in the world. It is my understanding that the Clean Air Act preempts the states from setting their own vehicle emission standards, and the Fleet rules set by the South Coast do not set any emission standards. The Fleet Rules that are set by the South Coast regulate the purchase and leasing of vehicles, and that is not preempted by the Clean Air Act.

Reference- Summary of the Clean Air Act. (2015, November 1). Retrieved January 6, 2016, from http://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-air-act

Case 4.7- The equal protection clause states:

“All persons born naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

I feel the foreign companies operating in Alabama fell under the jurisdiction of Alabama. By discriminating against them, the state of Alabama deprived them of the equal protection that the clause of the continuation guarantees them. Therefore, the Supreme Court ruled that the statute enacted by Alabama was unconstitutional. One of the Supreme Court Justices that was part of the decision noted that the statute “constitutes the very sort of parochial discrimination that the equal protection clause was intended to prevent.

Reference: Constitution. (n.d.). Retrieved January 6, 2016, from http://constitution.laws.com/equal-protection-clause