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Constitutional Law-Commerce Clause-State Taxation Of Interstate Commerce, Charles Myneder

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff corporation owned and operated oil pipe lines lying wholly within the state of Mississippi. Oil transported through these lines was later pumped into railroad tank cars and shipped out of state. The Mississippi State Tax Commission levied a tax against plaintiff measured by its gross receipts for transporting oil through the pipe lines. The state supreme court sustained the tax, ruling that the operation of the pipe lines was intrastate rather than interstate commerce and that the tax was "merely on the privilege of operating a pipe line wholly within this state as a local activity." On appeal to …