Memphis Steam Laundry Cleaner, Inc. v. Stone, Chairman, State Tax Commission (342 U.S. 389)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 3, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 342 U.S. 389 · 72 S. Ct. 424
- Docket
- No. 253
- Argued
- December 3, 1951
- Decided
- March 3, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1951
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Vinson
- 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
- Chief Justice Vinson (wrote), Justice Minton, Justice Clark, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Douglas, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed
- Dissenting
- Justice Black
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Chief Justice Vinson delivered the opinion of the Court. The question before us is whether a Mississippi tax laid upon the privilege of soliciting business for a laundry not licensed in. that State infringes the Commerce Clause. Appellant operates a laundry and cleaning establishment in Memphis, Tennessee. In serving the area sur rounding Memphis, appellant sends ten of its trucks into eight Mississippi counties where its drivers pick up, deliver and collect for laundry and cleaning and seek to acquire new customers. Appellee, who is Chairman of the' State Tax Commission of the State of Mississippi, demanded that appellant pay $500 under the following provisions of the Mississippi “state-wide privilege tax law of 1944”: “Sec. 3. Every person desiring to engage in any business, or exercise any privilege hereafter specified shall first, before commencing same, apply for, pay for, and procure from the state tax commissioner or commissioner of insurance,, a privilege license authorizing him to engage in the business or exercise the privilege specified therein, and the amount of tax shown in the following sections is hereby imposed for the privilege of engaging or continuing in the business set out therein.” “Sec..45. Upon each person doing business as a transient vendor, or dealer, as defined in this section, and upon which a privilege tax is not specifically imposed by…
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