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Coors Brewing Company v. Juan Carlos Mendez-Torres, Secretary of the Treasury Department of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

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Before Lynch, Chief Judge, Torruella and Lipez, Circuit Judges.

The question presented in this case is whether the Supreme Court’s decision in Levin v. Commerce Energy, Inc., 130 S. Ct. 2323 (2010), requires the federal courts to refrain from exercising jurisdiction over this case, a dormant Commerce Clause attack on Puerto Rico’s differential taxation of categories of brewers. We answer that question affirmatively and affirm the district court’s dismissal on comity grounds.

Puerto Rico has classified Coors Brewing Co. (“Coors”) as a “large brewer” under its beer tax schedule and accordingly taxes Coors at a higher rate than it taxes “small brewers,” including local Puerto Rico brewer Cerveceria India. In 2006, Coors brought suit in federal district court against Juan Carlos Mendez-Torres, Puerto Rico’s Secretary of the Treasury Department (the “Secretary”), challenging this differential treatment under the dormant Commerce Clause. The district court originally dismissed the case on comity grounds, but in 2009, this court reversed that decision, interpreting the Supreme Court’s decision in Hibbs v. Winn, 542 U.S. 88 (2004), to conclude that neither comity nor any federal statute barred Coors from seeking relief from the state taxation scheme in federal court. Coors Brewing Co. v. Mendez-Torres (Coors Brewing Co.), 562 F.3d 3 (1st Cir. 2009).

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