Head v. New Mexico Board of Examiners in Optometry

I agree that the attack on the New Mexico statute as an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce has no merit and therefore join Part I of the Court’s opinion. The attack based on the Supremacy Clause — the contention that the Federal Communications Act preempts the subject matter of this state regulation — is not; however, so easily answered. Although I conclude that it too cannot prevail, I think it is appropriate that I state separately my reasons for reaching that result. For only recently we held, in Farmers Educational & Cooperative Union v. WDAY, Inc., 360 U. S. 525, that the…