Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Is "Internal Consistency" Foolish?: Reflections On An Emerging Commerce Clause Restraint On State Taxation, Walter Hellerstein

Michigan Law Review

Whatever role "internal consistency" may come to play in the Court's commerce clause jurisprudence, it has already emerged as a doctrine that warrants our attention. This article traces the development of the doctrine, explores its implications, and considers its defensibility as a limitation on state taxing power. The article suggests that the results the Court reaches under the "internal consistency" doctrine could be reached by rigorous application of a more familiar commerce clause principle - one to which the Court has been less than faithful.

Commerce Clause Restraints On State Taxation: Purposeful Economic Protectionism And Beyond, Walter Hellerstein

Michigan Law Review

Few questions in recent years have spawned as much controversy and as little academic interest as the scope of commerce clause restraints on state tax power. The Supreme Court has handed down an extraordinary number of significant decisions addressed to the limitations the commerce clause imposes on state taxation. Yet these decisions have barely caught the eye of the nation's leading law reviews or constitutional scholars. Even those observers who have recognized the Court's renaissance of interest in the dormant commerce clause have largely confined their attention to state regulation, as distinguished from state taxation, of interstate commerce. If there …

State Income Taxation Of Multijurisdictional Corporations, Part Ii: Reflections On Asarco And Woolworth, Walter Hellerstein

Michigan Law Review

The first part of this Article, State Income Taxation of Multijurisdictional Corporations: Reflections on Mobil, Exxon, and H.R. 5076, did not contemplate a sequel. The Supreme Court's decisions last term in two state corporate income tax cases, however, created an irresistible opportunity to write one. The Court's opinions in ASARCO and Woolworth picked up where its opinions in Mobil and Exxon left off. Yet the direction taken by these more recent decisions veers sharply from the course ostensibly set by their predecessors. This Article will consider the Court's latest pronouncements in this area in a continuing if quixotic effort to …

State Income Taxation Of Multijurisdictional Corporations: Reflections On Mobil, Exxon, And H.R. 5076, Walter Hellerstein

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this Article is twofold: first, to analyze the Mobil and Exxon decisions; second, to consider the congressional reaction they may engender. Because the terrain that this Article covers may be unfamiliar to some readers, a few further words of introduction may be appropriate.

Taken together, the Mobil and Exxon decisions dealt with the three methods of dividing a multijurisdictional corporation's income among the states - specific allocation, separate accounting and apportionment by formula. Each method provides a different solution to the problem of determining the portion of the income of multistate businesses that should be taxable by …

What About Colville?, Bess Lee Chen

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

State Taxation And The Supreme Court: Toward A More Unified Approach To Constitutional Adjudication?, Walter Hellerstein

Michigan Law Review

The first section of this Article examines three recent cases, each addressed to a different constitutional limitation on the scope of state tax power, that may be read as signifying a new approach: Michelin Tire Corp. v. Wages, which concerned the import-export clause; United States v. County of Fresno, which concerned the supremacy clause; and Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, which concerned the commerce clause. Section II considers the implications of these decisions and explores -the possibility that they share an underlying doctrinal unity.

The Walz Decision: More On The Religion Clauses Of The First Amendment, Paul G. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

The principal thrust of this Article is to determine the contribution made by the Walz decision to the body of ideas that has been developed by the Court in its application of the interdependent free exercise and establishment limitations of the first amendment, to point up any distinctively new emphases, and to suggest the implications of these new ideas and emphases for important cases coming before the Court at its 1970-1971 term.

State Taxation Of Interstate Commerce --"Direct Burdens," "Multiple Burdens," Or What Have You?, Edward L. Barrett Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The problem of determining the permissible extent of state taxation of interstate commerce is as old as the Constitution.' From Chief Justice Marshall's dissertation upon the subject in 1827 in Brown v. Maryland to the present, thousands of pages of words upon the subject have found their way into the Supreme Court reports. Despite this judicial outpouring, however, the Supreme Court of the United States has yet to evolve a satisfactory theory upon which to decide cases in this field. In fact, the Court in 1951 appears as sharply divided in its basic approach to the problem as at anytime …

Constitutional Law-Exports-Immunity From State Taxation, Paul E. Anderson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Article 1, section 10 of the Constitution provides, "No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports . . . . " This clause places a limitation on state taxing power. The basic problem is to determine at what point goods in the process of being manufactured and prepared for foreign shipment become exports. If the goods are found to be exports, they are immune to state taxation. Two recent Supreme Court decisions have dealt with this question in an attempt to lay down a general rule applicable to future situations. Because …

State Taxation Of Interstate Commerce--What Now?, Robert C. Brown

Michigan Law Review

Perennial indeed have been the problems of state taxation affecting interstate commerce and the problems of intergovernmental taxation as between state and federal governments. The two problems are quite similar except that the intergovernmental problem is mutual while the interstate problem affects only state taxing power. But both are alike in that the restrictions on the taxing power are entirely judicial, and that while some restrictions are desirable they must themselves be limited lest we have not regulation but destruction of taxing power.

The intergovernmental problem is virtually settled with the allowance of non-discriminatory taxation on both sides, except as …

The Federal Constitution Today-Important Decisions Of The Supreme Court In The Last Eight Years 1937-1944 Inclusive, Burke Shartel

Michigan Law Review

In recent years one often hears lawyers say that the Constitution is gone; or one hears them echo the remark of Charles E. Hughes, made while he was Governor of New York, "We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is," and then perhaps add that lawyers can no longer determine with any assurance what the judges will do or will say the Constitution is. Such expressions and reactions are not unnatural in any period of rapid doctrinal change. All contain a large element of truth. Certainly much of the Constitutional Law is gone …

The Supreme Court, The Commerce Clause, And State Legislation, Vincent M. Barnett, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Recent decisions have revealed a growing rift in the Supreme Court on the question of the effect of the commerce clause on state legislation. This question, a perennial one in our constitutional history, concerns state legislation affecting in some way or other the carrying on of interstate business, and the validity of that legislation in view of the clause giving Congress the authority to regulate interstate commerce. The permissible scope of state activity in the absence of Congressional action has been the troublesome problem. If Congress acts, the issue is a relatively simple one. When the state action conflicts with …