Railway Express Agency, Inc. v. Virginia (347 U.S. 359)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 5, 1954 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 347 U.S. 359 · 74 S. Ct. 558
- Docket
- No. 163
- Argued
- January 5, 1954
- Decided
- April 5, 1954
- Term
- October Term 1953
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
- Constitutional ruling
- State/territorial law held unconstitutional
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Justice Frankfurter, Justice Burton, Justice Reed, Justice Minton, Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote)
- Dissenting
- Chief Justice Warren, Justice Black, Justice Douglas, Justice Clark (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Opinion of the Court by Mr. Justice Jackson, announced by Mr. Justice Reed. This appeal from the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia presents another variation in the seemingly endless problems raised by efforts of the several states to tax commerce as it moves among them. In the 1920’s the railroads of the country took over the express business theretofore separately handled. Their instrumentality was this appellant, a Delaware corporation, chartered for interstate and intrastate operation throughout the Union and actually so operating in every state except Virginia. It sought to do a general express business there, but that State has a constitutional provision which forbids a foreign corporation to exercise any public-service powers or functions therein. This prohibition was invoked by the State Corporation Commission to deny appellant authority to do any intrastate business. This exclusion was sustained by Virginia’s highest court and by this Court. As a consequence of the State’s own policy, this appellant does no business in Virginia which the State has power to prohibit but does only such as it can conduct under protection of the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution. To handle such intrastate express as falls within the power of the State to control, a separate Virginia subsidiary necessarily was organized. That local company annually has been assessed and has…
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