854
MACHINES CORP.
Opinion of the Court
Michelin expressly overruled the original package doctrine altogether and not merely Low on its facts).
Two years later, in Washington Stevedoring, we upheld against an Import-Export Clause challenge a nondiscrimina-tory state tax assessed against the compensation received by stevedoring companies for services performed within the State. The Court found that Washington's stevedoring tax did not violate the policies underlying the Import-Export Clause. Unlike the property tax at issue in Michelin, the activity taxed by Washington occurred while imports and exports were in transit. That fact was not dispositive, however, because the tax did not fall on the goods themselves:
"The levy reaches only the business of loading and unloading ships or, in other words, the business of transporting cargo within the State of Washington. Despite the existence of the first distinction, the presence of the second leads to the conclusion that the Washington tax is not a prohibited 'Impost or Duty' when it violates none of the policies [that animate the Import-Export Clause]." Washington Stevedoring, supra, at 755.
Relying on Canton R. Co. v. Rogan, 340 U. S. 511 (1951), which upheld a tax on the gross receipts of a railroad that operated a marine terminal and transported imports and exports, we ruled in Washington Stevedoring that taxation of transportation services, whether by railroad on the docks or by stevedores loading and unloading ships, did not relate to the value of the goods and could not be considered imposts or duties on the goods themselves. 435 U. S., at 757.
1
A tax on policies insuring exports is not, precisely speaking, the same as a tax on exports, but Thames & Mersey held that they were functionally the same under the Export Clause. We noted in Washington Stevedoring that one may question the finding in Thames & Mersey that the tax was
Page: Index Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007