Opinion · Supreme Court of the United States

Southern Pacific Co. v. Gallagher

306 U.S. 167

Type
Opinion
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction
Federal
Date
1939-01-30
Topic
general

How later courts describe this case

  • neither of which has since been reversed or overruled

Citator

UpLaw has not yet analyzed Southern Pacific Co. v. Gallagher. The absence of a flag is not a finding that it is good law.

Cited by
199 opinions

Headnotes

  1. Constitutional Law — Commerce Clause A state tax upon the privilege of operating in, or carrying on, interstate commerce is invalid under the Commerce Clause, and state taxes upon events that are in effect part of interstate commerce or that impose a burden upon the facilities of interstate commerce are likewise forbidden; such taxes cannot be sustained merely because the state characterizes the taxable event as intrastate storage or use. 306 U.S. 167, 171-174
  2. Constitutional Law — Commerce Clause A state use and storage tax, imposed upon the retention and exercise of ownership of tangible personal property purchased outside the state and brought in for use in interstate transportation operations, may validly be applied where there is a taxable moment after the property has reached the end of its interstate movement and before its consumption in interstate operation has begun; the interstate movement is complete and the interstate consumption has not yet begun at that moment. 306 U.S. 167, 176-177
  3. Constitutional Law — Commerce Clause State taxation of events preliminary to interstate commerce is permissible, and the invalidity of such a tax arises only where it is levied upon commerce itself or its gross receipts; an excise on the retention and installation of goods, as defined by state law, is a tax on intrastate events where those events are separable from interstate commerce. 306 U.S. 167, 176
  4. Constitutional Law — Commerce Clause The fact that a tax on installation increases the cost to an interstate operator in the same manner as a tax on consumption or operation is not significant; the prohibited burden upon interstate commerce is created by state interference with that commerce, a matter distinct from the expense of doing business, and a tax on property or upon a taxable event in the state, apart from operation, does not constitute such interference. 306 U.S. 167, 177
  5. Constitutional Law — Due Process A state use tax does not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment on the ground that it is exacted for consumption of supplies outside the state, where the taxable event is the exercise of the property right in the state; the tax is imposed upon an event occurring within the state's jurisdiction. 306 U.S. 167, 180-181
  6. Constitutional Law — Commerce Clause A state use tax complementary to a retail sales tax does not discriminate against goods of out-of-state origin on the face of the statutes merely because a local retailer may absorb the sales tax while the consumer of an imported article must pay the use tax, where the exaction for distribution of tangible personal property is the same whether purchased within or without the state and whether paid by retailer or consumer. 306 U.S. 167, 173-174