Cite as: 510 U. S. 355 (1994)
Thomas, J., dissenting
Evansville-Vanderburgh Airport Authority Dist. v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 405 U. S. 707 (1972), which upheld against Commerce Clause challenge the imposition of a per capita ("head") tax on air travelers. The Act was designed primarily to deal with the proliferation of local head taxes in the wake of the Evansville decision. Aloha Airlines, Inc. v. Director of Taxation of Haw., 464 U. S. 7, 9, 13 (1983).
Two AHTA provisions are relevant here. Section 1513(a) prohibits state and local governments from imposing "a tax, fee, head charge, or other charge, directly or indirectly, on persons traveling in air commerce or on the carriage of persons traveling in air commerce or on the sale of air transportation or on the gross receipts derived therefrom." Section 1513(b), however, states that "nothing in [the Act]" prohibits the imposition of "taxes other than those enumerated in subsection (a)," including, among other things, property and net income taxes, and that the Act does not prohibit "reasonable rental charges, landing fees, and other service charges" collected from "aircraft operators for the use of airport facilities."
In the Court's view, § 1513(a) prohibits virtually all airport user fees, ante, at 365 ("Landing fees, terminal charges, and other airport user fees of the sort here challenged fit § 1513(a)'s description"), and § 1513(b) "saves" those fees that are "reasonable," ante, at 366, n. 9 ("[U]ser fees are covered by § 1513(a), but may be saved by § 1513(b)"). The Court supports its broad reading of § 1513(a) in part by noting that the section prohibits not only head taxes but also taxes on gross receipts. Ante, at 365 (citing Aloha Airlines, 464 U. S., at 12-13). That, however, merely states the obvious. Section 1513(a) expressly prohibits taxes "on the gross receipts derived" from the sale of air transportation. The mere fact that the Act is not strictly limited to head taxes, which were the Act's primary target, id., at 13, but also encompasses taxes on gross receipts from the sale of air trans-
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