Cite as: 516 U. S. 325 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
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." Jefferson Lines, supra, at 180.
In evaluating state regulatory measures under the dormant Commerce Clause, we have held that "the first step . . . is to determine whether it 'regulates evenhandedly with only "incidental" effects on interstate commerce, or discriminates against interstate commerce.' " Oregon Waste Systems, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality of Ore., 511 U. S. 93, 99 (1994) (quoting Hughes v. Oklahoma, 441 U. S. 322, 336 (1979)). With respect to state taxation, one element of the protocol summarized in Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, 430 U. S. 274 (1977), treats a law as discriminatory if it " 'tax[es] a transaction or incident more heavily when it crosses state lines than when it occurs entirely within the State.' " Chemical Waste Management, Inc. v. Hunt, 504 U. S. 334, 342 (1992) (quoting Armco Inc. v. Hardesty, 467 U. S. 638, 642 (1984)); see also Boston Stock Exchange v. State Tax Comm'n, 429 U. S. 318, 332, n. 12 (1977) (noting that a State "may not discriminate between transactions on the basis of some interstate element"). State laws discriminating against interstate commerce on their face are "virtually per se invalid." Oregon Waste, supra, at 99; see also Philadelphia v. New Jersey, 437 U. S. 617, 624 (1978).
We have also recognized, however, that a facially discriminatory tax may still survive Commerce Clause scrutiny if it is a truly " 'compensatory tax' designed simply to make interstate commerce bear a burden already borne by intrastate commerce." Associated Industries, supra, at 647.2
2 We use the terms "compensatory" tax and "complementary" tax as two ways of describing the same phenomenon: a tax on interstate commerce "complements" a tax on intrastate commerce to the extent that it "compensates" for the burdens imposed on intrastate commerce by imposing a similar burden on interstate commerce. We have also described taxes
331
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007