Kern-limerick, Inc. et al. v. Scurlock, Commissioner of Revenues for Arkansas (347 U.S. 110)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 8, 1954 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 347 U.S. 110 · 74 S. Ct. 403
- Docket
- No. 115
- Argued
- January 4, 1954
- Decided
- February 8, 1954
- Term
- October Term 1953
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Reed
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
- Constitutional ruling
- State/territorial law held unconstitutional
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Justice Reed (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Burton, Justice Clark, Justice Minton
- Dissenting
- Chief Justice Warren, Justice Black (wrote), Justice Douglas (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Reed delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal brings here the legality of the application of the Arkansas Gross Receipts Tax Law of 1941, Ark. Stat., 1947, § 84^1901 et seq., to a transaction by which certain private contractors engaged in a joint venture, abbreviated WHMS, procured in Arkansas two diesel tractors costing $17,146, for use in the construction there for the United States of a naval ammunition depot estimated to cost over thirty million dollars. The tractors were procured from Kern-Limerick, Inc., a local dealer. The circumstances of the transaction would concededly make Kern-Limerick liable for the tax if the real purchaser were not the United States. The applicable sections of the Gross Receipts Tax Law levy an “excise tax of two [2%] per centum upon the gross proceeds or gross receipts derived from all sales to any person.” § 84-1903. This is a sales tax, not a use tax. It is to be paid to the Tax Commissioner by the seller, § 84H908. He is the taxpayer, § 84-1902 (e), and “shall collect the tax levied hereby from the purchaser.” § 84-1908. Gross receipts derived from sales to the United States Government are exempt. § 84-1904. The construction contract had, so far as pertinent here, the provisions as to “Materials — Purchases” which are set out in the margin. It was entered into by the Department of the Navy “under authority of Sections 2…
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