Carson, Commissioner of Finance & Taxation, v. Roane-anderson Company et al. (342 U.S. 232)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 7, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 342 U.S. 232 · 72 S. Ct. 257
- Docket
- No. 186
- Argued
- December 5, 1951
- Decided
- January 7, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1951
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Minton, Justice Clark, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. The Retailers’ Sales Tax Act of Tennessee, Tenn. Acts 1947, c. 3, imposes a sales tax on the sale of goods in Tennessee and a use tax on the use within the state of goods purchased elsewhere. Tennessee collected these taxes' from respondents who paid them under protest and then brought these suits to recover them and to enjoin future collections. Two of the respondents are private companies who are contractors for the Atomic Energy Commission and who paid use taxes; two are merchants who paid sales taxes on sales to those contractors and who passed the taxes on to them. The use taxes and the sales taxes were on articles used by the contractors in the performance of their contracts with the Commission. The Tennessee Supreme Court held by a divided vote (192 Tenn. 150, 239 S. W. 2d 27) that the challenged taxes, though not forbidden by the Constitution, were prohibited by § 9 (b) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, 60 Stat. 765, 42 U. S. C. § 1809 (b). The cases are here on certiorari. 342 U. S. 847. Sec. 9 (b) provides in part that “The Commission, and the property, activities, and income of the Commission, are. hereby expressly exempted from taxation in any manner or form by any State, county, municipality, or . any subdivision thereof.” The constitutional power .of Congress to protect any of its agencies from state…
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