TAXATION - INTERSTATE COMMERCE - STATE TAXATION OF GASOLINE OF INTERSTATE MOTOR CARRIERS

Authors

C. Eugene Gressman, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

An Arkansas statute required the payment of the state tax on all gasoline carried into the state in motor vehicle fuel tanks in excess of 20 gallons. The revenue therefrom was applied for highway purposes. Appellee's buses traveled four different routes, two from Memphis through Arkansas to St. Louis and two from Memphis to cities in Arkansas. For the Memphis-St. Louis trip, 68 gallons were required, only 16 of them being used in Arkansas. These 68 gallons, plus 10 extra ones, were placed in the tank at Memphis. On arrival at the Arkansas line, each bus still had 77 gallons and Arkansas sought to tax each gallon in excess of 20. The evidence showed that on all routes appellee's buses covered about 1188 miles each day over Arkansas highways and that each bus used about one gallon of gas every five miles. Appellee unsuccessfully sought an injunction in the federal district court against collection of this tax. The circuit court of appeals reversed this ruling and granted the injunction. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, held, affirmed, the imposition of the tax in this particular case being an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce since it bore no reasonable relation to the use of Arkansas highways by appellee. Justices Black, Frankfurter, and Douglas dissented. McCarroll v. Dixie Greyhound Lines, Inc., (U. S. 1940) 60 S. Ct. 504.

Recommended Citation

C. E. Gressman, TAXATION - INTERSTATE COMMERCE - STATE TAXATION OF GASOLINE OF INTERSTATE MOTOR CARRIERS, 38 Mich. L. Rev. 928 (1940).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol38/iss6/25