Pennsylvania Cities Sue State over Ban on Plastic Bag Restrictions

Philadelphia and three other municipalities have filed a lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s prohibition of bans on plastic or single-use bags. Philadelphia v. Penn., No. 42 MD 2021 (Penn. Commw. Ct., filed March 3, 2021). “To combat the destructive environmental impact of single use plastic bags, states and cities across the country have enacted laws restricting distribution of single-use plastic bags by retailers,” the complaint argues. The plaintiff cities assert that Pennsylvania has prevented them from taking action on limiting plastic bags. “In both 2019 and 2020, the Pennsylvania General Assembly used the annual fiscal code amendment – a must-pass omnibus-style bill that implements the state’s budget – to sneak in a provision prohibiting plastics legislation by Pennsylvania municipalities into state law,” they allege. “Petitioners are now indefinitely barred from enacting or enforcing local single-use plastics ordinances. Petitioners Philadelphia, West Chester, and Narberth wish to move forward with enforcement of their ordinances, but enforcement is not possible due to the unlawful plastics preemption provision. Petitioner Lower Merion is interested in considering a single-use plastics ordinance, but the plastics preemption provision bars not only enforcement but also enactment of new legislation.”

The plaintiffs argue that the ban on plastic-bag restrictions violates the Pennsylvania Constitution in multiple ways, including a limit on bills “containing more than one subject” and an amendment providing that the “people of have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.”