The Mason and Dixon Lines Inc. v. Kirk Steudle

OPINION

MERRITT, Circuit Judge.

The basic question before us is whether the State of Michigan acts in a proprietary capacity as a “market participant” rather than as a government regulator when it contracts with a private bridge company to divide up the work of building new ramps and roads that will connect various interstates with the Ambassador Bridge. We hold that, for purposes of the Commerce Clause and the plaintiffs’ statutory claims, the State is acting in a proprietary capacity here and, like the private bridge company, takes the role of a market participant when it joins with the…