The Dormant Commerce Clause and State-Mandated Preference Laws in Public Contracting: Developing a More Substantive Application of the Market-Participant Exception

This Note argues that the current focus on the relationship between states and their local governments as the key determinant of the constitutional validity of state-mandated preference laws is flawed. Instead, a court considering the validity of a state-mandated preference law should uphold such a law only if it distributes the benefits of state expenditures to state residents and does not excessively burden interstate commerce.