634
Thomas, J., dissenting
Woodruff's broad reading of the Clause's prohibition was explicitly adopted three years later in Low v. Austin, 13 Wall. 29 (1872), a case involving foreign imports. But we expressly overruled Low 20 years ago, in Michelin Tire Corp. v. Wages, 423 U. S. 276, 279 (1976), holding that the Import-Export Clause "cannot be read to accord imported goods preferential treatment that permits escape from uniform taxes imposed without regard to foreign origin for services which the State supplies," id., at 287; cf. United States v. International Business Machines Corp., 517 U. S. 843, 857-859 (1996) (distinguishing the Art. I, § 9, cl. 5, Export Clause, which bars the United States from imposing any tax on exports, from the Import-Export Clause, which prohibits States from levying only duties and imposts). While Michelin and Low dealt with foreign imports, the expansive interpretation of the Import-Export Clause's prohibition rejected by Michelin was the same interpretation that gave the Woodruff Court pause and that seems to have been an impetus to its refusal to read the Clause as applying to imports from other States. Thus, after Michelin, the second argument the Woodruff Court used to bolster its weak textual analysis—that it would be a gross injustice to prohibit States from levying any taxes on goods which were produced in other States—no longer has any force.
There is nothing else of consequence to support the Wood-ruff Court's holding. The only remaining argument made by the Woodruff majority was that it was "improbable" that the Convention would have permitted States to tax "imports" from other States merely with the assent of Congress, because the revenues that would accrue to Congress by granting such assent would prove too great a temptation for Congress to serve as a neutral arbiter regarding such taxes. Woodruff, supra, at 133. The Woodruff Court's speculation was without historical support, however, and pales in comparison to the substantial evidence described above regard-
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