Braniff Airways, Inc. v. Nebraska State Board of Equalization and Assessment et al. (347 U.S. 590)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 1, 1954 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 347 U.S. 590 · 74 S. Ct. 757
- Decided
- June 1, 1954
- Term
- October Term 1953
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Reed
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Me. Justice Reed delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented by this appeal from the Supreme Court of Nebraska is whether the Constitution bars the State of Nebraska from levying an apportioned ad valorem tax on the flight equipment of appellant, an interstate air carrier. Appellant is not incorporated in Nebraska and does not have its principal place of business or home port registered under the Civil Aeronautics Act, 52 Stat. 973, 977, 49 U. S. C. §§ 401-705, in that state. Such flight equipment is employed as a part of a system of interstate air commerce operating over fixed routes and landing on and departing from airports within Nebraska on regular schedules. Appellant does not challenge the reasonableness of the apportionment prescribed by the taxing statute or the application of such apportionment to its property. It contends only that its flight equipment used in interstate commerce is immune from taxation by Nebraska because without situs in that state and because regulation of air navigation by the Federal Government precludes such state taxation. This petition for a declaratory judgment of the invalidity of §§ 77-1244 to 77-1250 of the state tax statute and an injunction against the collection of taxes assessed under such provisions for previous years was filed as an original action in the court below by Mid-Continent Airlines, Inc., and tried upon…
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