640
Thomas, J., dissenting
such as property taxes, from indirect taxes, such as imposts, duties, and excises); Freeman's Journal, in 3 Storing 186-187 ("Under the term duties [in Art. I, § 8], every species of indirect taxes is included"); see also Michelin, supra, at 286, 290-291.
The tax at issue here is nothing more than a tax on real property. Such taxes were classified as "direct" taxes at the time of the framing, and were not within the class of "indirect" taxes encompassed by the common understanding of the word "duties." The amount of the Maine tax is tied to the value of the real property on which it is imposed, not to any particular goods, and not even to the number of campers served. It does not appear, therefore, to be a "duty" on "imports" in any sense of the words.22 Even when coupled with the tax exemption for certain Maine charities (which is, in truth, no different than a subsidy paid out of the State's general revenues), Maine's property tax would not seem to be a "Duty or Impost on Imports or Exports" within the meaning of the Import-Export Clause. Thus, were we to overrule Woodruff and apply the Import-Export Clause to this case, I would in all likelihood sustain this tax under that Clause as well.
22 Even were I to agree with the majority that a particular property tax may be a property tax in name only, see ante, at 574-575, and even were I to assume that travel across state lines to consume services in another State renders those traveling consumers "imports," it is difficult to characterize the tax at issue here as a duty on imports. It is, rather, as the majority recognizes, a "generally applicable state property tax." Ante, at 567. Maine's grant of an exemption from the tax to some charitable organizations that dispense their charity primarily to Maine residents makes the tax something less than universal, but it does not make the tax, even in practical effect, one that is levied exclusively, or even primarily, on imports. See, e. g., New Energy Co. of Ind. v. Limbach, 486 U. S. 269 (1988); Maryland v. Louisiana, 451 U. S. 725, 756 (1981); License Cases, 5 How. 504, 576 (1847); cf. Davis v. Michigan Dept. of Treasury, 489 U. S. 803, 821 (1989) (Stevens, J., dissenting) (arguing, in an analogous context, that "the fact that a State may elect to grant a preference, or an exemption, to a small percentage of its residents does not make the tax discriminatory").
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