328
Opinion of the Court
likely to provoke retaliatory action by foreign governments 29
is directed to the wrong forum. The judiciary is not vested with power to decide "how to balance a particular risk of retaliation against the sovereign right of the United States as a whole to let the States tax as they please." Id., at 194.
3
To support its argument that California's worldwide combined reporting method impermissibly interferes with the Federal Government's ability to "speak with one voice," and to distinguish Container Corp., Colgate points to a series of Executive Branch actions, statements, and amicus filings, made both before and after our decision in Container Corp.30
Colgate contends that, taken together, these Executive pronouncements constitute a "clear federal directive" proscribing States' use of worldwide combined reporting. Brief for Petitioner in No. 92-1839, p. 36, quoting Container Corp., 463 U. S., at 194.
The Executive statements to which Colgate refers, however, cannot perform the service for which Colgate would
29 See, e. g., Brief for Petitioner in No. 92-1384, at 25-28; Brief for Government of United Kingdom as Amicus Curiae in No. 92-1384, at 19-24; Brief for Member States of European Communities et al. as Amici Curiae in No. 92-1384, pp. 16-17.
30 Colgate cites, for example, President Reagan's decision to introduce legislation confining States to a water's edge method, State Taxation of Multinational Corporations, 21 Weekly Comp. of Pres. Doc. 1368 (Nov. 8, 1985) (statement of President Reagan); letters sent by members of the Reagan and Bush administrations to the Governor of California and the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, expressing the Federal Government's opposition to worldwide combined reporting, App. in No. 92-1839, pp. 9-27; and Department of Justice amicus briefs filed in this Court, arguing that the worldwide combined reporting method violates the dormant Commerce Clause, e. g., Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae in Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. v. Caterpillar Tractor Co., O. T. 1982, No. 81-349, cert. dism'd, 463 U. S. 1220 (1983); Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae in Barclays Bank PLC v. Franchise Tax Bd. of Cal., O. T. 1992, No. 92-212, cert. denied, 506 U. S. 870 (1992).
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