Town of North Hempstead v. Exxon Corp.

The court here confronts a classical due process attack on the constitutionality of legislation in the economic sphere. This century has witnessed a legal metamorphosis in this area of the law. The product of the change is what for some decades now may be fairly described as virtually a “hands-off” approach by the United States Supreme Court. In contrast, to fill this gap in an age when governmental legislative and quasi-legislative intervention in economic affairs abounds, courts in most States, relying on their own Constitutions, have reasserted a right, albeit somewhat limited, to…