Cite as: 520 U. S. 564 (1997)
Thomas, J., dissenting
II
Article I, § 10, cl. 2, of the Constitution provides that "[n]o State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports . . . ." To the 20th-century reader, the Clause appears only to prohibit States from levying certain kinds of taxes on goods imported from or exported to foreign nations. But a strong argument can be made that for the Constitution's Framers and ratifiers—representatives of States which still viewed themselves as semi-independent sovereigns—the terms "imports" and "exports" encompassed not just trade with foreign nations, but trade with other States as well.
The late Professor William Crosskey, in a persuasive treatment of this subject nearly a half century ago, unearthed numerous founding-era examples in which the word "import" referred to goods produced in other States. See The True Meaning of the Imports and Exports Clause: Herein of "Interstate Trade Barriers," in 1787, 1 Politics and the Constitution in the History of the United States 295-323 (1953). Crosskey recounts, for example, that merchants frequently published advertisements in the local newspapers announcing recent shipments of such "imported" goods as "Philadelphia Flour," "Carolina Rice," and "Connecticut Beef." Id., at 298.10 Similarly, the word "export" was used to refer to
10 See also Gazette of the State of Georgia, Oct. 11, 1787, p. 3, col. 3 ("Just imported . . . Superfine Philadelphia flour"); Newport [R. I.] Mercury, June 12, 1784, p. 4, col. 2 ("Just imported . . . Burlington [New Jersey] and Carolina, Pork, in Barrels"); ibid. ("Just imported . . . best Philadelphia Flour"); South Carolina Weekly Gazette, Sept. 13, 1783, p. 3, col. 2 ("Just imported, In the Sloop Rosana, . . . from Rhode-Island, . . . Potatoes, Apples, Onions by the bunch and bushel, Beats, Carrots, and good warranted Cheese"); Columbian Herald [Charleston, S. C.], Nov. 26, 1787, p. 4, col. 4 ("Just imported, From Philadelphia, . . . Dr. Martin's Celebrated Medicine for Cancers, Ulcers, Wens, Scurvies, Tetters, Ringworms, &c."); Newport Mercury, July 31, 1786, p. 2, col. 2 (complaining that "last year upwards of 700,000 bushels of corn were imported into [South Carolina] from North Carolina and Virginia"); Columbian Herald, Feb. 14, 1785, p. 2,
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