United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Galveston, H. & S.A. Ry. Co. v. Texas, 210 U.S. 217 (1908)

Galveston, Harrisburg and San

Antonio Railway Company v. Texas

No. 207

Argued April 21, 22, 1908

Decided May 18, 1908

210 U.S. 217

Syllabus

The statute of Texas of April 17, 1905, c. 141, imposing a tax upon railroad companies equal to one percent of their gross receipts is, as to those companies whose receipts include receipts from interstate business, a burden on interstate commerce, and as such violative of the commerce clause of the federal Constitution. Philadelphia & Southern Mail S.S. Co. v. Pennsylvania, 122 U. S. 326 followed; Maine v. Grand Trunk Railway Co., 142 U. S. 217, distinguished, and held that the latter case did not overrule the former.

Neither the state courts nor the legislatures, by giving a tax a particular name or by the use of some form of words, can take away the duty of this Court to consider the nature and effect of a tax, and if it bears upon interstate

Page 210 U. S. 218

commerce so directly as to amount to a regulation, it cannot be saved by name or form.

97 S.W. Rep. 71 reversed.

The facts are stated in the opinion.

Page 210 U. S. 223