In the 1970s, apples from Washington State accounted for approximately 30% of all apples grown domestically and nearly half of all apples shipped in closed containers in interstate commerce. Because of the importance of the Washington apple industry, the state legislature established a stringent and mandatory inspection program, which was administered by the State’s Department of Agriculture. The State requires all apples shipped in interstate commerce to be tested under strict quality standards, which award grades accordingly. These grades were equivalent or even superior of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and they became prominent and widely accepted in the apple trade.

In 1972, the North Carolina Board of Agriculture adopted a regulation requiring all apples shipped into the State in closed containers to display the USDA grade or nothing at all. Compliance with the regulation would require Washington farmers to significantly change their packaging and labeling process and prevent them from displaying the esteemed grade from the State of Washington, so the Washington State Apple Advertising Commission challenged its constitutionality in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. A three-judge panel of district court judges found that the regulation unconstitutionally burdened interstate commerce and discriminated against Washington apples. Under federal law at the time, decisions made by such panels were directly appealable to the Supreme Court, so the case wasn’t reviewed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.