Law Commons^™

Recent Cases, Walter S. Weems, Mary M. Schaffner, Ronald G. Harris

Vanderbilt Law Review

Constitutional Law-State and Local Tax-- Nondiscriminatory Ad Valorem Property Tax on Imports Stored in Warehouse Pending Sale Is Not Prohibited by Import-Export Clause

The framers of the Constitution enacted the import-export clause with the apparent intent that it remedy shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation and achieve specified national goals. Since the Articles of Confederation allowed individual states to regulate commerce as they saw fit, the seaboard stales, through whose ports goods in foreign commerce had to pass, were able to impose duties on imports destined for inland states. One reason for the import-export clause was to preserve harmony among …