CSX Transportation, Inc. v. Georgia State Board of Equalization et al (552 U.S. 9)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 4, 2007 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 552 U.S. 9 · 128 S. Ct. 467
- Decided
- December 4, 2007
- Term
- October Term 2007
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court. The Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 prohibits States from discriminating against railroads by taxing railroad property more heavily than other commercial property in the State. Two decades ago, we held that this statute permits an aggrieved railroad to challenge a State’s valuation of its property for tax purposes. Burlington Northern R. Co. v. Oklahoma Tax Comm’n, 481 U. S. 454, 462 (1987). Because the railroad in that case challenged only the State’s application of its valuation methods, we expressly reserved the question whether a railroad may challenge the State’s methods themselves. We answer that question today, and hold that railroads may challenge state methods for determining the value of railroad property, as well as how those methods are applied. The statute provides for nothing less. I Congress enacted the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act in 1976. 90 Stat. 31. Called the “4-R Act” for brevity, the law aimed to halt the economic decline of the rail industry by, among other means, barring “discriminatory state taxation of railroad property.” Burlington Northern, supra, at 457; see also Department of Revenue of Ore. v. ACF Industries, Inc., 510 U. S. 332, 336 (1994). The 4-R Act prohibits four separate forms of discriminatory state taxation of railroads. Only the…
Excerpt of a 21,831-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.