Standard Oil Co. v. Peck, Tax Commissioner, et al. (342 U.S. 382)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 4, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 342 U.S. 382 · 72 S. Ct. 309
- Decided
- February 4, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1951
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
- Constitutional ruling
- State/territorial law held unconstitutional
- Precedent
- This decision overruled or formally altered earlier precedent
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. . Appellant, an Ohio corporation, owns boats and barges which it employs for the transportation of oil along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. The vessels neither pick up oil nor discharge it in Ohio., The main terminals are in Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, and Louisiana. The maximum river mileage traversed by the boats and barges on any trip through waters bordering Ohio was l7% miles. These 17y2 miles were in the section of the Ohio River which had to be traversed to reach Bromley, Kentucky. While this stretch of water bordered Ohio, it was not necessarily within Ohio. The vessels were registered in Cincinnati, Ohio, but only stopped in Ohio for occasional fuel or repairs. These stops were made at Cincinnati; but none of them involved loading or unloading cargo. The Tax Commissioner of Ohio, acting under §§ 5325 and 5328 of the Ohio General Code, levied an ad valorem personal propérty tax on all of these vessels. The Board of Tax Appeals affirmed (with an exception not material here), and the Supreme Court of Ohio sustained the Board, 155 Ohio St. 61, 98 N. E. 2d 8, over the objection that the tax violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case is here bn appeal. 28 U. S. C. § 1257 (2). Under the earlier view governing the taxability of vessels moving in the inland waters (St. Louis v. Ferry Co.,…
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