This is an application for a preliminary injunction to restrain the defendants, who are tax-collecting officers of the state and county, respectively, from collecting the privilege tax imposed by law on the defendants for doing business as an express company in the state of Tennessee. The plaintiff denied that it was an express company, claiming that its express freight department was only a part of its general freight-carrying business, so conducted for its own and the convenience of the public. On an agreed statement of facts, the state courts, by a final judgment of the supreme court, decided that the two classes of business were distinct, and that the defendant was liable for this license or privilege tax. Memphis & L. R. R. Co. v. State, MSS. (Jackson, April, 1882.)
Passing all other questions like that of our jurisdiction, of which, perhaps, there is now no reasonable doubt, and that of the estoppel claimed by the litigation in the supreme court, as a matter res judi-cata, I am of opinion that the application must be denied on the merits. I should feel, on the cases cited by the learned counsel for the plaintiff, great difficulty in determining this question, for there is much force in the argument that this privilege tax is only an indirect mode for taxing the commerce itself. The supreme court has repeatedly said, what Mr. Justice Bradley says in Railroad Co. v. Maryland,
The injunction is refused.
See Ex parte Thornton, 12 Fed. Rep. 551, note. See, as to restraining collection of tax, Second Nat. Bank v. Caldwell, 13 Fed. Rep. 434, note.
INTERSTATE COMMERCE. Article 1, § 8, sulxl. 8, of the federal constitution vests congress with the power to regulate interstate commerce, every part of which is indicated by the term.
Transportation is essential to commerce, as the transportation of articles from one state to another
Domestio Commerce. The power conferred on congress by the commercial clause of the constitution is exclusive, so far as relates to matters within
A state may regulate its own internal commerce,
State Authority to Tax. Where the tax imposed is only a tax on the privilege of doing business within the state, it is not in violation of the constitution ;
Tax ON Exports. A tax on freight taken out of or brought into a state is invalid.
Tax on Imports. Goods imported, in the hands of the importer, are not a mass of the property of the state,
DISCRIMINATION. Any discrimination against tho products of another state is in conflict with the commercial clause of the constitution.
Passenger, Taxes. The power of congress to regulate commerce extends to persons as well as property ;
Tonna&e Duty. A tax levied on a vessel irrespective of her value as property, and solely on the basis of her tonnage, is a duty on tonnage,
TRANSPORTATION of Goods. An act which affects the carriage of goods from state to state is unconstitutional and void,
Notes
а) Gibbons v. Ogden,
U. S. v. Bailey,
The Daniel Ball,
McCulloch v. Maryland,
People v. Brooks,
State Freight Tax Cases,
Western Union Tel. Co. v. Atlantic & P. Tel. Co.
U. S. v. Holliday,
State Freight Tax Cases,
State Freight Tax Cases,
People v. Raymond,
Pick v. Chicago, etc., R. Co.
State Freight Tax Cases,
Erie R. Co. v. New Jersey,
McCulloch v. Maryland,
State Freight Tax Cases,
Hall v. De Cuir,
Mobile Co. v. Kimball,
King v. Amer. Trans. Co. 1 Flippin, 1.
Gibbons v. Ogden,
Cleveland, etc., R. Co. v. Pennsylvania,
Reading R. Co. v. Pennsylvania,
Wilson v. Kansas, etc., R. Co.
Corfield v. Coryell,
Delaware Railroad Tax,
Railroad Co. v. Maryland,
State Freight Tax Cases,
Osborne v. Mobile, 16 Wall 479.
Nathan v. Louisiana,
Railroad Co. v. Maryland,
Reading R. Co. v. Connecticut,
Southern Express Co. v. Hood,
State v Baltimore & Ohio R. Co.
Reading R. Co. v. Pennsylvania,
Western Union Tel. Co. v. State,
Western Union Tel. Co. v. State,
1) Western Union Tel. Co. v. Texas, 14 Cent. L. J. 448.
Steam-ship Co. v. Port-wardens,
Wheeling, etc., Transp. Co. v. Wheeling,
Sinnot v. Davenport,
State Freight Tax Cases,
Jackson Min. Co. v. Auditor General,
State v. Eagle, 34 N. J. L. 425; State v. Cumberland R. Co.
State v. Eagle, 34 N. J. L. 427.
Ogilvie v. Crawford Co.
Id. Timber, at a port in a state awaiting shipment, belonging to and in the hands of a foreign subject, and under contract of sale to parties abroad, while thus segregated from the mass of the property of the state is not subject to taxation. Blount v. Munroe,
Almy v. State,
Almy v. State,
Brown v. Maryland,
People v. Moring,
State v. Peckham, 3 R. I. 289. See Davis v. Dashiel, Phil. N. C. 114; Waring v. The Mayor,
Waring v. The Mayor,
Webber v. Virginia,
State v. Furbush,
Guy v. Baltimore,
Guy v. Baltimore,
Tiernan v. Rinker,
/¿) Id.
Van Buren v. Downing,
Brown v. Maryland,
Lin Sing v. Washburn,
Sinnot v. Davenport,
Henderson v. Mayor of N. Y.
Chy Lung v. Freeman,
Passenger Cases,
Passenger Cases,
Crandall v. Nevada,
Steam-ship Co. v. Port-warden,
Crandall v. Nevada.
State v. Freight Tax Case,
Lin Sing v. Washburn,
Passenger Cases,
Pullman S. C. Co. v. Games, 3 Tenn. Ch. 587.
State Tonnage Tax Cases,
Gibbons v. Ogden,
Keokuk N. P. Co. v. Keokuk,
State v. Charleston,
Cooley v. Port Wardens,
Packet Co. v. Keokuk,
State Tonnage Tax Case,
Northwestern N. P. Co. v. St. Paul,
Worsley v. Municipality, 9 Rob. (La.) 324; Packet Co. v. Keokuk,
State Freight Tax,
State Freight Tax Cases,
Reading R. Co. v. Pennsylvania,
Minot v. Phila., etc., R. Co.
State Tax on Gross Railway Receipts,
Wayman v. Southard,
Passenger Cases.
