180
Opinion of the Court
preventing a State from retreating into economic isolation or jeopardizing the welfare of the Nation as a whole, as it would do if it were free to place burdens on the flow of commerce across its borders that commerce wholly within those borders would not bear. The provision thus " 'reflect[s] a central concern of the Framers that was an immediate reason for calling the Constitutional Convention: the conviction that in order to succeed, the new Union would have to avoid the tendencies toward economic Balkanization that had plagued relations among the Colonies and later among the States under the Articles of Confederation.' " Wardair Canada Inc. v. Florida Dept. of Revenue, 477 U. S. 1, 7 (1986), quoting Hughes v. Oklahoma, 441 U. S. 322, 325-326 (1979); see also The Federalist Nos. 42 (J. Madison), 7 (A. Hamilton), 11 (A. Hamilton).
The command has been stated more easily than its object
has been attained, however, and the Court's understanding of the dormant Commerce Clause has taken some turns. In its early stages, see 1 J. Hellerstein & W. Hellerstein, State Taxation ¶¶ 4.05-4.08 (2d ed. 1993) (hereinafter Hellerstein & Hellerstein); Hartman, supra n. 3, §§ 2:9-2:16, the Court held the view that interstate commerce was wholly immune from state taxation "in any form," Leloup v. Port of Mobile, 127 U. S. 640, 648 (1888), "even though the same amount of tax should be laid on [intrastate] commerce," Robbins v. Shelby County Taxing Dist., 120 U. S. 489, 497 (1887); see also Cooley v. Board of Wardens of Port of Philadelphia ex rel. Soc. for Relief of Distressed Pilots, 12 How. 299 (1852); Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419 (1827). This position gave way in time to a less uncompromising but formal approach, according to which, for example, the Court would invalidate a state tax levied on gross receipts from interstate commerce, New Jersey Bell Telephone Co. v. State Bd. of Taxes and Assessments of N. J., 280 U. S. 338 (1930); Meyer v. Wells, Fargo & Co., 223 U. S. 298 (1912), or upon the "freight carried" in interstate commerce, Case of the State
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007