Minneapolis Star & Tribune Co. v. Minnesota Commissioner of Revenue (460 U.S. 575)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 29, 1983 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 460 U.S. 575 · 103 S. Ct. 1365
- Decided
- March 29, 1983
- Term
- October Term 1982
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice O'Connor
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- State/territorial law held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents the question of a State’s power to impose a special tax on the press and, by enacting exemptions, to limit its effect to only a few newspapers. I Since 1967, Minnesota has imposed a sales tax on most sales of goods for a price in excess of a nominal sum. Act of June 1, 1967, ch. 32, Art. XIII, § 2, 1967 Minn. Laws 2143, 2179, codified at Minn. Stat. §297A.02 (1982). In general, the tax applies only to retail sales. Ibid. An exemption for industrial and agricultural users shields from the tax sales of components to be used in the production of goods that will themselves be sold at retail. §297A.25(l)(h). As part of this general system of taxation and in support of the sales tax, see Minn. Code of Agency Rules, Tax S & U 300 (1979), Minnesota also enacted a tax on the “privilege of using, storing or consuming in Minnesota tangible personal property.” This use tax applies to any nonexempt tangible personal property unless the sales tax was paid on the sales price. Minn. Stat. §297A. 14 (1982). Like the classic use tax, this use tax protects the State’s sales tax by eliminating the residents’ incentive to travel to States with lower sales taxes to buy goods rather than buying them in Minnesota. §§297A. 14, 297A.24. The appellant, Minneapolis Star & Tribune Co., “Star Tribune,” is the publisher of a morning…
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